My Most Important Reading
02/24/2005 02:42 p.m.
My Most Important Reading
(Feb. 19, 05)

When I asked my brother-in-law,
on his deathbed,
if he’d like me to read a little
to him,
the selection he requested was from the Psalms.

My voice was shaky at first
though I’d done this before for him
(and numerous other readings, in my life as a poet

this one was tougher
than any other delivery
of verse, mine or someone else's, I’d ever made.

God’s and David’s words carried us through
soon coating my voice
with a sure hope and strength
steadiness and purpose,
the words he anticipated
coming to life again,
offering him peace
and the comfort of his faith
a comfort the world of medicine had failed
to be able to grant him.

He wanted to listen
to the Psalms
not to kill time
during his confinement
but in preparation.

Soon he slept,
restored, as I was.


(Just a draft of the experience, for now. A day of so after this reading, my sister and I were told her husband wouldn’t be able to communicate with us anymore due to a new medicine started to ease his congestion. But as it turned out, the same day of the new medicine, he passed away also. So I was glad he could make this request earlier. When he was more able, even within the past week, he was an avid reader and student of the Bible. His wife and a dear friend from the Church also read to him regularly, even when he was reading on his own still.
I am currently Depressed