Solid Rock

Sand and water, baby…

 

and a million years gone by.

I’ve loved Beth Nielsen Chapman’s song, Sand and Water. She wrote it after living through the death of her husband and dealing with the grief — the life — that she had to continue for their — her — son.

And then I saw this poem:

It’s possible I am pushing through solid rock
in flintlike layers, as the ore lies, alone;
I am such a long way in I see no way through,
and no space: everything is close to my face,
and everything close to my face is stone.

I don’t have much knowledge yet in grief
so this massive darkness makes me small.
You be the master: make yourself fierce, break in:
then your great transforming will happen to me,
and my great grief cry will happen to you.
       ~ Rainer Maria Rilke