DIVING IN THE MOON:
HONORING STORY, FACILITATING HEALING
Farmers Market at the Autumn Equinox
© Merna Ann Hecht 2013
wanting to nest
in the yellow-leafed wind,
inside this basket
heaped with saucers of late summer
squash, bunched arugula,
lipstick and gypsy peppers,we know the news of the day,
wars against children,
tax cuts for the rich,
environmental assault,
it doesn’t stop,but this morning
if I must think of what’s gone bad,
let it be a bruised eggplant,
an apple with a worm,
let me hear the tambourine
of the moon
as it lights the way for the corn
to rise up,slight breeze through basket’s weave fills
with memories, they travel in me
as if from the thin roots
of carrots, to the leafy tops,
and I am with my grandfather
in his garden
as he listens to the small song
of a seed before planting it,
kneeling to earth,
he asks the seed, how it wants to flower.Tonight, I will dream of him
dream he has cupped his hands
around mine, and between us we hold
a luminous sliver of prayer
for what the world could still become.
Reprinted from Drash: Northwest Mosaic, Vol. VII, 2013
Merna Ann Hecht, storyteller, poet, and essayist teaches creative writing, social justice and humanities at the University of WA, Tacoma. She founded and directs the Stories of Arrival Youth Voices Poetry Project with immigrant and refugee youth. Her teaching and writing are focused on the consequences of war for young people and on immigration issues. Her recent essays include publication in Teachers and Writers Magazine on peace education and on working with young people who are negotiating trauma and loss. She is a recipient of a 2008 NSN Brimstone Award.