by Patricia Fargnoli
Soon he will leave,
a man with four suitcases
hurrying into the rain.
All that can be kept then
is the black belt of sadness
which you have earned
four times over.
This is the hardest lesson--
you must let go of what
you would hold too firmly.
Four times the bells ring,
loud at first--
and then softer,
the sound disappearing
above you in the wet, white pines.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Patricia Fargnoli is an award-winning American poet and retired psychotherapist. She was the New Hampshire Laureate from December 2006 to March 2009. Fargnoli's books of poetry include Necessary Light (Utah State University Press, 1999), winner of the May Swenson Book Award; Lives of Others (Oyster River Press, 2001); Small Songs of Pain (Pecan Grove Press, 2003); Duties of the Spirit (Tupelo Press, 2005) which won the Jane Kenyon Literary Award for Outstanding Poetry by a New Hampshire poet, and most recently, Then, Something, (also from Tupelo Press, 2009) which won the 2009 Foreword Review Best of the Year Silver Award in Poetry, and was an Honorable Mention for the 2009 Eric Hoffer Award in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in magazines and literary journals including Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Indiana Review, Mid-American Review, Nimrod, and others.
Last updated January 05, 2012