How to photograph the heart
by Christine Klocek-Lim
How to photograph the heart
You remember how the lens squeezed
unimportant details into stillness:
the essential trail of rain down glass,
the plummet of autumn-dead leaves,
your grandfather’s last blink when
the breath moved on.
Your startled hands compressed
the shutter when you realized: this is it,
this is the last movement he will take
away from the silent fall of morphine,
beyond the soft gasp of the nurse,
past the sick, slow thud of your heart
moving in the luminous silence.
Table of Contents
i — rain
How spring arrives
The anatomy of birds
Strange violet behind trees
ii — fragile
Fragile
Sakura
Learning to Speak American
Sweet Bread
The conversation
Into the quiet
Inheritance
iii — beloved
Twenty-year love poem
Dissolution
Naked Tea
Dearly Beloved
How to be forever
My heart beats against the ground
Copyright © 2009
Touch: The Journal of Healing
All rights reserved.