because meals are memorials
that teach us how to move,
history moves in us as we raise
our voices and then our glasses
to pour a little out for those
who poured out everything for us,
we pour ourselves for them,
so they can eat again.
From “Grace” by Jake Adam York, RIP (12/12)
This week, instead of memorizing a poem for the Mnemosyne Weekly, I’ll be spending time with family. But I’d still like to share a poem with you. No matter what your faith or what you’re celebrating, this poem highlights mealtime as a way of honoring both the past and the present, both those with whom we are sitting and those who are no longer here. Such a lovely, universal message–
See the full poem here: tinyurl.com/cn59693
The painting is “One of the Family” by Frederick Cotman (1880)
Melissa Studdard is on Facebook and Twitter. She writes on Johntext Texas. Visit her personal homepage www.melissastuddard.com and find out about events and her books and contact her on http://melissastuddard.com/contact/ More information is available on Wikipedia.