A Road Beyond Loss

When the world came down upon me

and the sky closed like a door,

sounds filled my ears from far away.

I lay down on the floor.

And no one near could find me,

and nothing near was mine.

I sank into the floorboards

from the voices,

soft and kind.

Until one thought got through to me,

one image filled my mind:

a pencil and a paper lying

close to hand, nearby.

Somehow I took them up and traced

one word and then the next,

until they linked together in a chain

that first perplexed the darkness

in my eyes, then,

rowing on my paper barque,

I soon was far away

and saw the water trail I'd left

rise up into a chain—

a ladder reaching high above

to light and sound and friends.

And that's how I climbed out

of the grief that has no end.