Peace

This week at SFC we explored the theme of peace.  As we journey through the church season of advent, looking for Christ breaking in to the world we talked about what peace is and how we find it.  This poem is about a peacemaker and the way that people are drawn to those who speak peace in the dark places.

I hope you find an oasis of peace in this time. – Eilidh

On the Death of a Colleague
By Stephen Dunn

She taught theater, so we gathered in the theater.
We praised her voice, her knowledge, how good she was
with Godot and just four months later with Gigi.
She was fifty. The problem in the liver.
Each of us recalled an incident in which she’d been kind or witty.
I told about being unable to speak from my diaphragm
and how she made me lie down, placed her hand
where the failure was
and showed me how to breathe.
But afterwards I only could do it when I lay down
and that became a joke
between us, and I told it as my offering
to the audience.
I was on stage and I heard myself wishing to be impressive.
Someone else spoke of her cats
and no one spoke of her face or the last few parties.
The fact was I had avoided her for months.

It was a student’s turn to speak, a sophomore,
one of her actors.
She was a drunk, he said, often came to class reeking.
Sometimes he couldn’t look at her, the blotches, the awful puffiness.
And yet she was a great teacher, he loved her,
but thought someone should say
what everyone knew
because she didn’t die by accident.

Everyone was crying. Everyone was crying and it
was almost over now.
The remaining speaker, an historian, said he’d cut his speech short.
And the Chairman stood up as if by habit, said something about loss
and thanked us for coming. None of us moved
except some students
to the student who’d spoken, and then others
moved to him, across dividers,
down aisles, to his side of the stage.