The Response

Fern Ziegler

I have written poetry for years.  This is the first poem that I wrote in a new writers group that formed after last year's FCRP conference, with folks that I met there.  The prompt was to write a reaction to the poem, "Call Me By My True Name" by Thich Nhat Hanh.  You may have to find that poem[1] and read it, in order to understand my reaction.

The Response

Fern Zeigler

I thought that I would read the poem again

after you read it so beautifully

but I could not

The painful parts

too painful

I know this suffering exists

but I fear that I will fall into a hot soup of it

never to return

never to laugh again

I have that capacity

I cry at TV commercials

I choose happiness

when it appears

like a bird at the feeder

Or I create it

as I paint

and think of nothing else

but the light, shadow and shape

of the form before me

the mix of color on the pallet

the application on the canvas

I was afraid

when you set the timer

and the expectation

was to write

But here I am

a font of words

a font of feelings

a font of fears

and the joy is expression

I am grateful

that I have the luxury

to express pain and suffering

while others are in the grip of the vice

Thank you God and Universe

for my pain is nothing

in comparison.

Fern Zeigler works as a therapist and lives in Lafayette Hill, PA. She has been a regular attender at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting and truly loves it there.

[1] Thay’s Poetry / Please Call Me by My True Names (song & poem) | Plum Village