"I once had a sister..."

 I, too, a sister had, an only sister -

She loved me dearly, and I doted on her;

To her I poured forth all my puny sorrows;

(As a sick patient in a nurse's arms,)

And of the heart those hidden maladies ­

That e'en from friendship's eye will shrink ashamed.

O! I have waked at midnight, and have wept

Because she was not!


    (From Samuel Taylor Colderidge's poem, "To my friend, with an unfinished poem"
   a condolence poem from 1794.)

This past June 1st was the second anniversary of my sister, Sandra's, death. I still miss her badly and wanted to post something on that date, but couldn't think of anything good enough. Then, watching the movie, "All my Puny Sorrows," based on a Miriam Toews novel, I looked up the Coleridge poem from which the quote comes.

Sandra was my best friend and close confidante. Every so often I think, "I must phone her and tell her about...." and it takes a moment for me to remember that I can't.

That reminds me of an old Carter Family song that went, "Hello, Central, get me Heaven, 'cause I  know my momma's there..." Substitute "sister" from "momma" and the song speaks for me.

The value of writing, be it a country song or a classic poem, is that it can crystallize what we feel but cannot express.

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