Chapter 9

Therapy

Therapy

There is a wayOf healing love with love,They say.But I say no!What! shall pain comfort pain,Fever calm fever,Woe minister to woe?Shall tear, remembering,Wash cool remembering tear?Shall scar play host to scar,Loneliness shelter loneliness;And is forgetting here?Poor patch-work of the heart,This healing love with love;Binding the wound to wound,The smart to smart!Grafting the dream upon the other dreamAs a gardener grafts tree to tree,And both from the same wild rootBearing their bitter fruit:The new dream dreaming in the old,The old dream in the new—And neither dreaming true.Is there, I wonder,A heaven above the heaven we knew?And is there underOur dream’s stern wakingA sterner hell?And shall we know them too?One thing I know:Of an unreckoned giving that is a taking,A wrong, a robbery!Perhaps you so wronged me;I so robbed you.Therapy—therapy—I am content to feelThis health of heart that will not heal;I am content to thinkThat I am one with hunger,Given to thirst,And that I need not eat nor drink.I am full-nourished so.They sayThere is a wayOf healing love with love.But I say no!*  *  *Beyond the sandsOf all they sayI see you still,Holding toward me those eager handsI could not fill;My hands still curve and close,Deeming they hoardThe shining things you pouredThat I let spill.Over us lift the years—Hill upon hillOf days that wither into night,And nights that ache to day;Reiterated emptiness of shade and lightCrowding the empty way.Up to this sullen therapyOf time,Shall we two climb?*  *  *I am too tired to climb;Nor would I goSo far from the loved overthrow.Climb you to healing! while I keepVigil in this lost placeA little while;WeepIf I choose,The honest abject tear,Let the grief break and pour;Gather the shadows comfortably near,And sleep as children sleep.A little little while!To wake and smile,Indifferent to the dark,Holding to me my one-time joyAs children clutch an ancient battered toyThey will not have renewed;Smile, and lie closer to a lossThat tunes itself to gain,(Inexorable lullaby),Lie softer, safer,Pillowed on fortitude—Drowsy—Beneath my pain.

There is a wayOf healing love with love,They say.But I say no!What! shall pain comfort pain,Fever calm fever,Woe minister to woe?Shall tear, remembering,Wash cool remembering tear?Shall scar play host to scar,Loneliness shelter loneliness;And is forgetting here?Poor patch-work of the heart,This healing love with love;Binding the wound to wound,The smart to smart!Grafting the dream upon the other dreamAs a gardener grafts tree to tree,And both from the same wild rootBearing their bitter fruit:The new dream dreaming in the old,The old dream in the new—And neither dreaming true.Is there, I wonder,A heaven above the heaven we knew?And is there underOur dream’s stern wakingA sterner hell?And shall we know them too?One thing I know:Of an unreckoned giving that is a taking,A wrong, a robbery!Perhaps you so wronged me;I so robbed you.Therapy—therapy—I am content to feelThis health of heart that will not heal;I am content to thinkThat I am one with hunger,Given to thirst,And that I need not eat nor drink.I am full-nourished so.They sayThere is a wayOf healing love with love.But I say no!*  *  *Beyond the sandsOf all they sayI see you still,Holding toward me those eager handsI could not fill;My hands still curve and close,Deeming they hoardThe shining things you pouredThat I let spill.Over us lift the years—Hill upon hillOf days that wither into night,And nights that ache to day;Reiterated emptiness of shade and lightCrowding the empty way.Up to this sullen therapyOf time,Shall we two climb?*  *  *I am too tired to climb;Nor would I goSo far from the loved overthrow.Climb you to healing! while I keepVigil in this lost placeA little while;WeepIf I choose,The honest abject tear,Let the grief break and pour;Gather the shadows comfortably near,And sleep as children sleep.A little little while!To wake and smile,Indifferent to the dark,Holding to me my one-time joyAs children clutch an ancient battered toyThey will not have renewed;Smile, and lie closer to a lossThat tunes itself to gain,(Inexorable lullaby),Lie softer, safer,Pillowed on fortitude—Drowsy—Beneath my pain.

There is a wayOf healing love with love,They say.But I say no!What! shall pain comfort pain,Fever calm fever,Woe minister to woe?

There is a way

Of healing love with love,

They say.

But I say no!

What! shall pain comfort pain,

Fever calm fever,

Woe minister to woe?

Shall tear, remembering,Wash cool remembering tear?Shall scar play host to scar,Loneliness shelter loneliness;And is forgetting here?

Shall tear, remembering,

Wash cool remembering tear?

Shall scar play host to scar,

Loneliness shelter loneliness;

And is forgetting here?

Poor patch-work of the heart,This healing love with love;Binding the wound to wound,The smart to smart!Grafting the dream upon the other dreamAs a gardener grafts tree to tree,And both from the same wild rootBearing their bitter fruit:The new dream dreaming in the old,The old dream in the new—And neither dreaming true.

Poor patch-work of the heart,

This healing love with love;

Binding the wound to wound,

The smart to smart!

Grafting the dream upon the other dream

As a gardener grafts tree to tree,

And both from the same wild root

Bearing their bitter fruit:

The new dream dreaming in the old,

The old dream in the new—

And neither dreaming true.

Is there, I wonder,A heaven above the heaven we knew?And is there underOur dream’s stern wakingA sterner hell?And shall we know them too?

Is there, I wonder,

A heaven above the heaven we knew?

And is there under

Our dream’s stern waking

A sterner hell?

And shall we know them too?

One thing I know:Of an unreckoned giving that is a taking,A wrong, a robbery!Perhaps you so wronged me;I so robbed you.

One thing I know:

Of an unreckoned giving that is a taking,

A wrong, a robbery!

Perhaps you so wronged me;

I so robbed you.

Therapy—therapy—I am content to feelThis health of heart that will not heal;I am content to thinkThat I am one with hunger,Given to thirst,And that I need not eat nor drink.I am full-nourished so.

Therapy—therapy—

I am content to feel

This health of heart that will not heal;

I am content to think

That I am one with hunger,

Given to thirst,

And that I need not eat nor drink.

I am full-nourished so.

They sayThere is a wayOf healing love with love.But I say no!*  *  *Beyond the sandsOf all they sayI see you still,Holding toward me those eager handsI could not fill;My hands still curve and close,Deeming they hoardThe shining things you pouredThat I let spill.

They say

There is a way

Of healing love with love.

But I say no!

*  *  *

Beyond the sands

Of all they say

I see you still,

Holding toward me those eager hands

I could not fill;

My hands still curve and close,

Deeming they hoard

The shining things you poured

That I let spill.

Over us lift the years—Hill upon hillOf days that wither into night,And nights that ache to day;Reiterated emptiness of shade and lightCrowding the empty way.

Over us lift the years—

Hill upon hill

Of days that wither into night,

And nights that ache to day;

Reiterated emptiness of shade and light

Crowding the empty way.

Up to this sullen therapyOf time,Shall we two climb?*  *  *I am too tired to climb;Nor would I goSo far from the loved overthrow.Climb you to healing! while I keepVigil in this lost placeA little while;WeepIf I choose,The honest abject tear,Let the grief break and pour;Gather the shadows comfortably near,And sleep as children sleep.

Up to this sullen therapy

Of time,

Shall we two climb?

*  *  *

I am too tired to climb;

Nor would I go

So far from the loved overthrow.

Climb you to healing! while I keep

Vigil in this lost place

A little while;

Weep

If I choose,

The honest abject tear,

Let the grief break and pour;

Gather the shadows comfortably near,

And sleep as children sleep.

A little little while!To wake and smile,Indifferent to the dark,Holding to me my one-time joyAs children clutch an ancient battered toyThey will not have renewed;Smile, and lie closer to a lossThat tunes itself to gain,(Inexorable lullaby),Lie softer, safer,Pillowed on fortitude—Drowsy—Beneath my pain.

A little little while!

To wake and smile,

Indifferent to the dark,

Holding to me my one-time joy

As children clutch an ancient battered toy

They will not have renewed;

Smile, and lie closer to a loss

That tunes itself to gain,

(Inexorable lullaby),

Lie softer, safer,

Pillowed on fortitude—

Drowsy—

Beneath my pain.


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