Photo by Markus GrassThis beautiful poem was written by Clarissa Pinkola Estes on the death of the wonderful John O’Donohue, whose works appear frequently in these pages. Under the trine from Jupiter to Uranus this week our perspectives can shift and we can begin to see our world in a new light.
The Painted Face Of God
–Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I’ve often thought in my life how hard it will be to leave this earth
And once when I was so ill and lay dying and crying
Thinking how horrible to leave the people I so loved
As though I would never see them, ever again
Those most precious to me
To never hold them, smell them, hear them again
And especially also to leave the mysterium of this earth
Our beloved yellow sun
Our brilliant blue sky
Our mother of pearl shining moon
Our green grasses
Our purple heather
Our black-winged raptors
Our silver wolves
Our colored songbirds
All these of such beauty
A seeming nowhere else known in the entire universe
To leave this painted face of god
That we lived mirrored upon
This painted face of god
That teaches us through the seasons of flowers and pines on mountains
And creatures and red hearts beating
In flurries all over the world
In all that moves with purpose on earth
In all else
How can anyone believe that here on earth is not god
Right here on earth
How can we leave
This magnificent, incandescent, radiant, beautiful painted face of god
On earth
And I wept and I grieved
How can we leave this beautiful god on holy earth
So filled with gems and diamonds and gold and silver
And all the elements of wonder
And I wept
But in time now as many years have passed in my life
As I gather more years
I am able to see better now the far encampment in my own life
And coming closer and closer now
In the seventh decade of my life
To all the time travel awaiting me
And awaiting us all
I realize, I realize yes, god is here on earth
We are with god here
So very very yes
And that we travel one day
From god here on earth
To the star-rapt god riding across the sky
That they are the same
That we may leave in this way or in that way
But we are only traveling
From our precious painted god on earth
To our precious star-rapt god of the cosmos
That we are not leaving
We are only traveling
Leaving god to go to god
And so it is for John
And so it will be for us one day
And thus we are together on the journey now
Some a little ahead
Some a little behind
But not apart
Not ever
We are all traveling together
So may it be for you
And so may it be for me
And so may it be for all of us
Ride on, dear anam cara, friend John
Ride on white
Adios
Oh, that’s so beautiful, Lynn. Thank you so much for bringing those images and thoughts into my life today.❤️
So beautiful. My heart is brimming over with tears of happiness and sadness at the same time.
Thank you Lynn for sharing.
Stunning. Heartrending. Thank you, Lynn
Thank you, Lynn, for sharing this exquisite poem from Clarissa. It is so timely for me and my family, now, since one of our brothers is in Hospice. I always appreciate your Sunday Inspirations.
I’m so glad to see that so many people resonated with this piece. Apparently Clarissa read this at a memorial service for John O’Donohue and it is not available anywhere but was transcribed by David Paul Kilpatrick. I feel lucky to have found it.