Those Who Bow Their Heads

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

I too want to keep the company of those

who bow their heads. What is our

purpose if it is not attentiveness

and gratitude? Let us have allegiances

with that which breaks us open and

that which makes us whole.

Have you noticed how the light finds

you, but always gives you over to the

darkness so that you can see what is

really there to see? Listen to the voices

around you, I have begged, how they tell

you about humanity in gestures. Your

humanity, theirs, mine, ours. How much

of it we have neglected out of neglect of

this generous world. I want to comfort

this place with a million utterances of,

“Thank you!”

Let me find other words too, always, and

walk with reciprocity in my step. Always.

If we were having dinner together tonight,

I’d say something simple like:

“There is food on the plate.

Lives have made it so.”

That’s plenty of reason, certainly you

agree, to bow our heads in attentiveness

and in gratitude.

“Thank you!”

“Thank you!”

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

Published in "Conversations with Mary: Words of Attention and Devotion"

Winner of the Nautilus Book Award silver medal for poetry

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