What Martha Postlewaite DIDN'T Say

Here’s what Martha Postlewaite said in her stunning poem, Clearing.

Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself to this world
so worthy of rescue.

Notice that she didn’t say,
Google “best clearings for dense forests,” then click on all the links to choose the one closest to what you want.
or,
Spend the rest of your life creating the best clearing ever.
or,
Thin out your dense forests first, so that you can create a clearing.
or,
Create a clearing in the dense forest of your life, then get to work! DO STUFF in it.

She never said,
Wait there patiently till you know what to do,
or,
Wait there till someone else’s song hires you with benefits and a better salary,
or,
Wait for a least an hour, but no longer than six months,
or,
Wait for as long as you can afford to wait. Then if nothing happens, cut your losses and walk away.

Nowhere in the poem does she say,
The song that is your life will be easy and fun and once you find it,
you’ll live happily ever after.

Once you’ve hacked your way through your own forest,
and you’ve followed all the signs, and worked the land,
and done your level best to calm down and pay attention
and you’ve made the clearing, you have made that clearing!
and you’re standing there in it…

then you have to cup your hands.
(which means you have to put your phone down.)
You have to shape your hands into a silence,
a flesh and bone cup of stillness,

and w a i t.

You’re afraid you won’t know it when it comes, but don’t kid yourself.
You’ll know. When you hear it, the You song—as it falls
into your waiting body—you’ll know exactly
what you’re hearing and who it’s for.

Then comes the real work.

You must recognize it,
make eye contact, let it know
you see it.

And you must also greet it.
This is important.

In ancient times, when you waved or shook hands
it was to show you had no weapons.

So greet your song unarmed.

The song that is your life—greet it
without the knives of sarcasm, critique, doubt.

Greet that song with a deep hello of the heart,
and let it pool in there till it bubbles up all the way to the brim,
from the bottom to the top
of the well
of you,

so that everyone in your circle,
and in all of theirs,

can drink.

This is how we do it.
This is how we give ourselves
to the world so worthy of rescue.

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Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.

I really love this comic. Here’s her latest in “The comments are even better than the video itself,” where, actually, the people commenting are the real comics.