I read this poem this morning (slowly, a few times through) and was so touched by its simply beauty and powerful truth.
It is by leaning on another frail human being when we fail that something beautiful and strong can unfold.
We are truly better together.
Take a breath, take a moment here. Read this aloud if you need to. Read it two or three times until the truth of what the poet is saying forms a lasting image in your mind and marks your soul with wisdom.
Most like an arch — an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.Most like an arch — two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyances become a term
naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what’s strong and separate falters…It is by falling in and in we make
the all-bearing point, for one another’s sake,
in faultless failing, raised by our own weight.
(John Ciardi, 1916 – 1986)
