49 Comments
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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thank you kindly, @Kathleen Hobbs, for sharing this 🙏😊

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Kathleen Hobbs's avatar

You're welcome, Paul

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thanks for this restack, @Alison Redford

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Good Friday, @Portia, and thank you for sharing this 😊

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Portia's avatar

You’re welcome, Paul. Good Friday and a lovely weekend!

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thank you!

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

My thanks to @Kimberly Root for sharing this !

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Grateful to @Blue Citizen 77 for this restack—thank you, Diane! 💙💙

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Blue Citizen 77's avatar

Thanks, Paul. Hope your holidays will brighten your days and provide more great poems💙🎄💙

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thank you, Diane. Im not a fan of Winter weather, although I do enjoy seeing scenes of it on postcards. I’m am busy writing so I expect to post more. I’m trying to be hopeful 💙🎄💙

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Blue Citizen 77's avatar

I hear you! I’m trying to be hopeful as well. It’s a full-time job!💙🎄💙

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

My thanks to @Gary Spangler for this restack.

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Jo-Ann Petrarca's avatar

Memories and feelings, may we never forget. This is so lovely Paul. ✨

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thank you, Jo-Ann! ✨

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Jo-Ann Petrarca's avatar

You’re welcome

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Sharon Hom's avatar

Blood memories are powerful, carrying lifetimes…

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Exactly, Sharon. Thank you!

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Sharon Hom's avatar

I watched If an Owl calls your name- really powerful documentary about terrible trauma and ultimately healing for indigenous peoples after the devastation of generations of their children taken away and put into “ residential schools” to have their languages and cultures beat out of them, and subjected to sexual, physical, emotional abuse. The elders talked about the intergenerational trauma carried in the blood, calling for a true healing. It made me think alot about my own blood inheritances…

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

We have a legacy of that in both the U.S, and in Canada, and it persists right down to today, Sharon.

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Sharon Hom's avatar

If an Owl Calls focused on the Canadian history. Yes, ongoing in the U.S. and in other parts of the world too, the Ukrainian children taken from their families, Tibetan children in residential schools. Children in Gaza.

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Martin Mc Carthy's avatar

The concept behind this poem - that all life, all relationships, are carried within us, like a river that is forever moving and never-ending, and every part of it still exists and goes on speaking to us - is so well conceived that it totally upholds the striking conclusion that we are never truly alone, that our loved ones remains us, and we can almost feel them there beside us in the silence, if we pause long enough. What a wonderful poem, Paul!

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Richbee's avatar

There’s a deep canyon cut through Mother Earth .

The veins continue to pulse, resonate, redefine the world that is seen held in memories eyes. A view from above sends love.

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

As I look up from deep in that canyon, Richbee, I’m waving at you!

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Rea de Miranda's avatar

Beautiful, Paul.

*sigh*

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thank you, Rea de Miranda.I’ve always been drawn to paradoxical ideas and life seems to be full of them.

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Elham Sarikhani's avatar

This is tender, and it is earned.

Blood remembers how to hold and blood remembers what it demands of us.

Being carried is a mercy; becoming responsible for what carries us is the harder inheritance.

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

You’re right, Elham. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts on this poem. 😊

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Elham Sarikhani's avatar

🙏🙏🙏

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Ethereal Twilight Poetry's avatar

I loved reading this thanks for sharing it. You have such a wonderful gift ❤️

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thank you for reading and for your comment!

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C.J. Heck's avatar

This is a good one, Paul. I like, "... even silence has someone to hold."

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

I live alone, C.J. It’s a familiar feeling.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I didn’t know that, Paul. Well, that’s why the poem was so realistic. I’ve heard it said that the best poetry comes from writing about what we know.

Thanks, Paul.

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

My brother lived with until his death last year, C.J.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I’m so sorry to hear of your brother passing, Paul. I’m sure that was devastating for you. That brings your poem alive with even more meaning. How old was your brother?

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Gary and I were fraternal twins, born 13 minutes apart. He passed a bit more than a week after our 76th birthday.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Paul, you caught me totally off guard and I didn’t know what to say. This touched me deeply. It’s always hard to lose someone we love, a spouse, a family member, a dear friend. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like it would be even harder to lose a twin. From what I’ve heard and read, twins are closer than normal siblings.

Whatever. Paul I’m so sorry for you loss.

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

I think of that when I'm alone, C.J.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I understand. I hope you aren’t alone very often.

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Patris's avatar

What remarkable beings we are, Paul..Surprising how we are able to even move, we hold so many within us..

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Indeed we are, Patris.

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Paul Wittenberger's avatar

Thank you, @KathieOC for sharing this!

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