Today's featured poem is about atoning for past sins. Wouldn't it be great if we had the chance to make up for all our fleeting hateful moments? Think about the meanest thing you've ever done; anyway to make restitution for it now? Go ahead; pay it forward!
2010 Poetry Parade: Day 9
Redemption
by
Kathe Palka
Redemption
by
Kathe Palka
tends to catch you by surprise,
like an old high school teacher,
math or English, the one you
made fun of because she lisped
while encouraging you in front of friends
after a failure. You hated the subject,
her class, the way the radiator
hissed incessantly all winter
in the drab room.
Back home years later,
you meet her on the street
and she smiles at you, happy
about your successes, glad
you’ve turned out all right,
her forgiveness making the trip
worthwhile.
From Faith to See and Other Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2007)
First published in The Penwood Review
Used with the author’s permission.
2 comments:
Yes,"Redemption" certainly takes you by surprise at times. As a teacher, I didn't always think my principal was right or completely supportive of my side of things. Nevertheless, when I retired, I wondered why some issues mattered so much. And the three principals that I had in 33 years of teaching grew in stature, respect, and forgiveness. In life, it's not so much what we say or do that matters with people, as it is how we feel when we are around them. That's what we remember best about them.
And isn't that powerful motivation for thinking about how we want people to feel when they're around US? I've seen a few people behave really badly in public; they may have just been having a bad day, but that doesn't change the fact that my impression of them now is always negative. I try to remember, when I feel my "BAD SELF" threatening a snit, that could be the only memory some people ever HAVE of me!
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