Oh, the comfort
The inexpressible comfort
of feeling safe with a person
Having neither to weigh thoughts, nor measure words
But pouring them all right out
just as they are
Chaff and grain together
Certain that a faithful hand
will take and sift them
Keep what is worth keeping
And with a breath of kindness
Blow the rest away.
Poem by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, an English author who wrote it in her 1859 novel A Life for a Life. I only recently discovered this detail, but this poem was the first poem I intentionally collected, from the pages of Woman’s Day magazine in 1966. I still have the page my aunt carefully cut from the pages of her issue and sent to me in our new home in Maryland. I was 12 years old and making new friends was challenging in my new school, but I did find a friend after some painful trial and error and now, these many years later, she is still that person for me.
Calligraphy and design by Cari Ferraro, 1995
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