Jane Kenyon: Notes from the Other Side
November 13, 2009
I divested myself of despair
and fear when I came here.
Now there is no more catching
one’s own eye in the mirror,
there are no bad books, no plastic,
no insurance premiums, and of course
no illness. Contrition
does not exist, nor gnashing
of teeth. No one howls as the first
clod of earth hits the casket.
The poor we no longer have with us.
Our calm hearts strike only the hour,
and God, as promised, proves
to be mercy clothed in light.
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May all who read and contribute to this blog come to know this.
The poem strikes me as going beyond placidness almost to the point of being devoid of affect. I wonder if this is a reflection of the poet’s personal struggles with depression and leukemia. It is not a vision of heaven as a place of intense joy, choirs of angels singing, and heart-piercing ecstasy, but rather as a place of utter peacefulness and, apparently, inertness. It is a place where it is no longer necessary to “cope.”