Life in the Time of COVID-19, Part 40
“Prayer to the Invisible” is poet Diane Frank’s tribute to a friend she lost in a synagogue shooting. But both she and we felt that this poem speaks to everyone who has lost a loved one, and, in fact, to all of us, during this perilous time.
Frank is a prominent San Fransisco-based poet and a cellist with the Golden Gate Symphony.
Prayer to the Invisible
By Diane Frank
I write your name where no one can read it.
In the sky behind a cloud
on a stone
in the footprints of a tortoise walking back
into the ocean.
In the conversation where you came in a dream
from the other place.
When I told you how much I missed you,
you let me know that you can do even more healing
where you are now, out of your body.
A year after the synagogue shooting,
you embrace your friends at the Tree of Life
as they are saying Kaddish for you –
where we sit all day and name the dead.
You whisper to your wife
who is living in a shadow,
sitting alone on the tapestry sofa
where she sat with you.
Our prayers grow out of the shadow
of necessity. Our music
floats above the burden we carry
even though you want us to release it.
I carry your spirit on my shoulders
as I walk into the synagogue
where we played music for you,
as I follow an eclipse north
as I walk into a dream.
I write your name in the sky after midnight
in the Leonid meteor showers,
in the penumbra of an eclipse
of the wolf moon.
Your name is inside the music
I play for you on my cello.
I write your name in the invisible
where you disappeared that morning
where your spirit flew into a cloud.
I write your name
in an ice halo around the moon
and my prayer that this planet
will one day, like an amaryllis,
bloom again.
Such an exquisite tribute to her friend — all the places she has written his name, reflecting that he remains ever present in her heart. Beautifully moving. I heard the sound of her cello.
I love this poem by Diane and it so applies to the many tragedies around COVID. I hope we “will one day, like an amaryllis, bloom again.
Such a beautiful, evocative, melodic poem! The images carried me away. I am so thankful for words like this that remind us our loved ones who have gone on before are still present, still giving, still encouraging us from “the cloud.” So needed now.
What a lovely poem. You remind us of that COVID is not the only tragedy which has taken loved ones from us in the past server also months and how we recall those souls to ourselves and honor them in innumerable ways that speak of beauty and bring hope for healing.
This poem is so filled with love, holiness and gratitude for the beauty of the natural world.
It feels so healing, I can feel the author’s friend’s healing spirit and love hovering near as I read it.
Beautiful. Thank you.
This poem is a healing balm. Beautiful. Tender.
This poem creates a loving picture–thank you.
What an incredible tribute to such a senseless tragedy!
This poem is heart rending. I even “heard” the soft sounds of the cello.
Diane Frank’s words heal hearts, minds, and souls. For when the mind is too heavy to be friends with the heart, and comfort is hard, Diane will write, she will speak, and say, “just listen”….listen. Diane Frank honors her friend, she writes her friend’s name in the sky at midnight.
Diane Frank… I am weeping, for this lost Loved One… for the many loved ones lost to my family in 2020, and before. Your word medicine is as gentle as a hug, but it won’t let go. I will be reading this poem forever. Thank You.
Thank you for this soothing, healing prayer. I will read it again and again.
A prayer for our times. It is a balm that sings to us all. Thank you so much.