DURING AN ENCHANTMENT IN THE LIFE

During an Enchantment in the Life

by Brenda Hillman

Do you love a living person
absolutely? Tell them now.
In a half-unwieldy life you made, under
the hyaline sky, while the dead
drank from zigzag pools nearby,
if they saved you in your wild incapacities,

in timing of the world’s harm
in a little pettiness in your own heart while others took
your madrigals in shreds to a tribunal,
when others said you should feel grateful
to be minimally adequate for the world’s
triple exposure or some tired committee…

The ones who love us, how do they
break through our defenses?
We’re tired today. Come back later.
Their baffled voices melting our wax walls
with a candle, the ones who understand
what being is - the glowing, the broken,

the wheels, the brave ones -
they have their courage,
you have yours,,,;
when you meet the one you love,
it is so rare. When you meet
the one who loves you, it is extremely rare.

reprinted in the New York Times magazine 10/9/22
Brenda Hillman is a teacher and an editor and activist, and is the author of 11 collections of poetry. Her honors include the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry and the 2020 Morton Dauwen Zabel Award. This poem is from her new book, “In a Few Minutes Before Later” (Wesleyan University Press, 2022).