BUTTON UP YOUR OVERCOAT

                        Mary Sheepshanks

                    My neighbours regard poetry
                    With suspicion: It smacks
                    Alarmingly of undressed souls.
                    They feel much safer if souls
                    Are buttoned into winter overcoats.
                    A hint of spritual decolletage
                    And they scuttle off
                    Embarrassed as crabs.
                    Why muffle emotion under
                    Cautious hats and layers
                    Of thermal knickers?
                    Wearing a poem might make
                    Their hearts fly on the bubble
                    Of a willow-warbler's call
                    Or grieve on the sorrowing wings
                    Of an owl's adagio flap.
                    If they kicked their shoes off
                    And ran barefoot through verse
                    They might dance to blues
                    Rendered by moody trees,
                    Catch water-lilies at prayer
                    On pools of mystery;
                    Glimpse the reflection
                    Of each other's hearts.
                    But then of course, they might
                    Quite possibly, just catch a chill.


Reprinted with kind permission of author from Patterns in the Dark by Mary Sheepshanks, 1990. 

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1991 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099
www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com 
 

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