in your despair, be mindful

[csecooney]

for h.a.j.

friend, in your despair
remember and be mindful
the torment of our work
shall also bless us

others, just like us,
have labored long,
studied endlessly, soared up in
ecstasy and perished
poor, in penury
to pass on unremembered

yet from their fingers (as from ours)
whole worlds were born, wars
raged, serpents dreamed by starlight
men lived and died at their command
reluctant heroes condemned
to valor, or women rising up in
wheels of fire
aflame with sorceries

it isn't nothing
though it seems like nothing
a practice that is less than dust, invisible and
fragile as the first green shoot of springtime
shattering some muddy seed
unconscious of its consequence

our humble woes incise us
grocery lists and laundry baskets, not
enough potatoes left for dinner, our mothers'
sicknesses, our partners' anxious brows, all our
ordinary sorrows
precise as razor blades,
cutting us ever smaller

we forget that other forces sculpt us too
and we, ignorant as marble
of our own trapped glory
wake slowly
under Michelangelo's deft hands

what did he dream in the darkness
worrying at his tomorrow
turning his face to the wall, vowing
once and for all
never to touch his tools again?

surely some voice told him:

friend, in your despair
remember and be mindful
the torment of our work
shall also bless us