Written By:

Grief and Gratitude

By Bill Peck

Humans gain insight by
Linking trillions of cells
Within each brain, stretching a
Mirror vast and complex enough to
Catch the entire universe
Reflecting its amazing
Beauty and wonder

We need one another
All seven billion of us
To weave by our cultures
The interlocking segments of
Vision that together
As if by lightning spasms
Over millennia compose the

Image, glorious in serendipity,
Of a precarious
Dwelling place
Of rocks and mud and slime for
All the myriad creatures and
Their children, –our children too,
Like child Moses
Hidden among reeds

We need every one
Even the damaged ones
Whose lives seemed on a
Detour arcing away into
Darkest mystery—
They died of pain—yet,
We are so glad to have known them

The universe after years of Teaching us,
agonized, through Trauma— now most slowly
Begins to heal, resembling an immense bee- hive drenched,
Sweet and wise, with all-pervasive all-inclusive
Mutual Gratitude