Stuart Kestenbaum

In Praise of Hands

It's not just the people
who live in the city

who've lost the thread
that ties them to the woven

world of stones and earth,
fields alive with pollen and wings.

Who among us understands
how oceans rise and fall,

currents swirling around the planet
with messages in bottles

floating on the water.
When the tide is out

we can go to the shore
dig clay with our bare hands

and make something beautiful from it,
a vessel with thin walls

that holds a canyon.
In both hands, like an offering,

we can hold the memory
of eroded stones and earth,

eons contained in this empty bowl.
We can fill it with water

that reflects the sky that has
witnessed everything since

time began, we can drink and be blessed,
clouds gathering over us.

"In Praise of Hands" from Prayers & Run-on Sentences. © Deerbrook Editions, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

Stuart Kestenbaum lives in Deer Isle, Maine. He is the author of three books of poems, most recently Prayers and Run-on Sentences (Deerbrook Editions 2007), and The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press 2012), a book of essay about craft and creativity.