Poetry in the Season of Jonah: Swerve

This is the season of Jonah. Jonah died on October 2, 2013 after twelve days in a residential hospice. His death followed the procession of Jewish fall holidays–Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah. He waited patiently until the celebratory Hebrew month of Tishrei was almost over and the bitter month of Cheshvan, devoid of celebration, was about to begin.

I’ve been experimenting with writing sonnets, a form I’ve never used before now. I’m enjoying the challenge of using rhythm and rhyme in a prescribed manner. Here is my latest poem. I think often of the deer that led to the swerve that dropped into the spin that ended in the crash that led eventually to Jonah’s death.

SWERVE

Turn one way then the other in a swerve

Suddenly when a deer breaks the straight line.

One son living, one now dead, both are mine

Their car spinning and spinning in wide curves.

Why this bleak death what purpose can it serve

It would not be part of some grand design.

After the crash soil samples scattered so fine

Embedded now deep in my every nerve.

Has Gabe remembered how to live with verve?

Of his injuries there is no real sign.

Time moves forward with Jonah left behind

Though his memory be forever preserved.

Absence felt more strongly than were he here

Part of my daily life in poem and prayer,

When it comes to death I no longer fear

It’s clear to me our souls are everywhere.