For my friend who has suffered a profound loss, and for anyone lost…
For the Interim Time
by John O’Donohue
When near the end of day, life has drained
Out of light, and it is too soon
For the mind of night to have darkened things,
No place looks like itself, loss of outline
Makes everything look strangely in-between,
Unsure of what has been, or what might come.
In this wan light, even trees seem groundless.
In a while it will be night, but nothing
Here seems TO believe the relief of dark.
You are in this time of the interim
Where everything seems withheld.
The path you took to get here has washed out;
The way forward is still concealed from you.
“The old is not old enough to have died away;
The new is still to too young to be born.”
You cannot lay claim to anything;
In this place of dusk,
Your eyes are blurred;
And there is no mirror…
What is being transfigured here is your mind,
And it is difficult and slow to become new…
* * *
To my friend: I fear words are cold comfort now. I hope that your community – our community – will lift you up and hold you, as long as it takes, and that God will bring you peace.
* * *
Excerpt of “For the Interim Time” from this collection:
Thank you for the gift of this book, Helen Callahan.
