<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I do apologize. The author of the poem I sent this morning, Wild Common Prayer, is actually Cecilia Woloch.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="e99no-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="e99no-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="e99no-0-0" class="">Wild Common Prayer</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="agj08-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="agj08-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="agj08-0-0" class=""><br data-text="true" class=""></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="5jrt4-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="5jrt4-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="5jrt4-0-0" class="">I dreamt you were whole again, radiant, calm: your hair still golden but</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="cpvok-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="cpvok-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="cpvok-0-0" class="">tinged with red — a halo of rosy, burnished light — and your hands</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="5dd50-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="5dd50-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="5dd50-0-0" class="">untrembling in your lap. I was surprised to find you home. But I’ve been here</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="4hs0g-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="4hs0g-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="4hs0g-0-0" class="">all along, you said. Or might have said. You didn’t speak. You’d only aged</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="7qnp0-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="7qnp0-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="7qnp0-0-0" class="">as women age whose bodies ease them toward death; grown softer, more</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="c859m-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="c859m-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="c859m-0-0" class="">yourself. And I was the one who stood amazed, there in the kitchen where</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="8vq34-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="8vq34-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="8vq34-0-0" class="">we’d spent so many quiet mornings, friend. Wanting to touch you, wanting</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="ugn6-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="ugn6-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="ugn6-0-0" class="">to simply not forsake you now. Outside, the pasture lay down calmly; each</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="dgki4-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="dgki4-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="dgki4-0-0" class="">blade shimmered in the wind. This is eternity, I thought, and felt you breaking</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="1a2ii-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="1a2ii-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="1a2ii-0-0" class="">into all your lovely fragments as I woke.</span></div><div data-offset-key="1a2ii-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="1a2ii-0-0" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="ft63i-0-0" style="color: rgb(20, 24, 35); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-offset-key="ft63i-0-0" class="_1mj _1mf" style="position: relative; direction: ltr;"><span data-offset-key="ft63i-0-0" class=""> - Cecilia Woloch</span></div></div></div></body></html>