I first read this poem many years ago, when I was a recent college graduate just beginning my venture into the “real world.” I loved it then, and I copied it into the journal I was keeping at the time. Shortly afterwards, I met the man who was to become my first true love. I remember reading this poem to him one night, after we’d been having an especially heavy talk about our relationship and where it was going. I then got up to take a shower and prepare for bed. When I came into the bedroom, he had opened all the drawers to my dresser – his silent way of trying to say “I’m sorry.” I was so touched by such a gesture.
Sadly, our relationship did not last – we went our own ways, while remaining friends. Over the years we lost contact with one another, and not too long ago I learned that he had passed on from a heart attack. I’m sorry that we never got a chance to see each other again, but I cherish the memories of our time together.
Relationships will come and go. People will enter my life – some fleetingly, others enduringly. Each of them will leave their own special impact…sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good.
But regardless, they each get their own drawer.
~ Ocean
I will present to you
parts
of my self
slowly
if you are patient and tender.
I will open drawers
that mostly stay closed
and bring out places
and people
and things
sounds and smells,
loves and frustrations,
hopes and sadnesses,
bits and pieces
of the decades of life
that have been grabbed off
in chunks
and found lying in my hands.
They have eaten their way into my memory,
carved their way into my heart.
All together
they are me.
If you regard them lightly,
deny that they are important
or worse,
judge them
I will quietly,
slowly,
begin to wrap them up,
in small pieces of velvet,
like worn silver and gold jewelry,
tuck them away
in a small wooden chest of drawers
and close.
John T. Wood, 1974
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
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