from The House Loved Us…A Collection of Poems About Life and Loss

I am the heart

that beats for family

beats for women

beats for all

Sing a song of care

Let my heart beat loudly

when life tries to end that force.

I beat for those I love

I hear the cries

of people, men,

women, children

crying for their losses.

Let my heart not harden

against the people who

have hardened their

hearts against me.

I am the heart

Sometimes broken

by the weight

of misdeeds, of

cries that harbor

in the body of the heart.

I beat for those I love

who do the right thing

no matter the price

they pay.

I am the heart

one of many

conscious of the burden of people

everywhere.

Hear the wails of

broken marriages, loss

of family, the quiet

whimpers of the

sleeping child.

Sometimes no one hears me

no matter how strong

the heart beats.

I am the heart

joyous but

afflicted with

the sorrows of the world.

The heart is heavy,

burdened

I can’t do everything.

When my heart is broken

and weeps and weeps

but then revives itself

open, ready for the love

kindness, and generosity,

of nameless spirits.