Ghosts
“Ghosts, to make themselves manifest, require two conditions abhorrent to the modern mind: silence and continuity,” Edith Wharton (from her book, Ghosts)
Funnily enough, just yesterday I was discussing the necessity of silence – especially in nature. The need to close the human mouth & pause its outflow under a canopy of trees, for example, is some kind of gorgeous silence.
Then later, I was pondering the parts of continuity that include wreckage & pain, breakdown & grief – the cyclical upheaval of It All.
Does that make me a ghost? Or was a ghost around me, tapping on my skull & dumping in these thoughts? There are days when I know I am a ghost of myself. There are dusks when I weep for the ghost of my Nonna. I have ghosts of memories that flicker in my periphery like power outages. I think…my mortality speaks in ghost tongue.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 
Oh indeed Vanessa,
Our mortality speaks in “ghost tongues”.
This is a wonderful poem, filled with so many positive ideas, and still, there is mystery.
“Silence and Continuity” , so contrary to modern life! I’m finding “nature” to be a great “companion”
in these later days of covid. Trees have their own magic of communication. Prior to this year,
I was not “listening’-now, I’ve begun!
With covid, I think there are so many “ghosts around”. Too many people have died. All that energy
is still “around”. This must have been true during “ the Black Plague”, in the time of Henry 8th,
also, in the 1918 pandemic. And here we are again! We also live in the very dangerous time of
“climate change”. China and Russia are “ absent” from the process of making changes- scary!
Amazing how “money and profit” seem to rule this world at a time when we are destroying
our own habitat. More women need to be “ in charge”. Angela Merkel is one of the best leaders
of all time! And she is leaving that stage!
I digress! Keep on Vanessa!
Mary Ann
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