Stigmata X

Stigmata X

by Terry Anderson

No man can ever start anew completely;

he's everything he's done

or said or failed to do.

Each bit is added on,

Altering the whole,

But covering, not replacing

what has gone before.

A piece of unfired clay,

he bears the marks

and scars of all his years.

Not just clay, though

sculptor, too;

he helps to mold himself:

Object, artist, audience.

Sometimes, though, larger hands --

destiny, fate, karma, God --

take firmly hold and,

wielding fierce events,

risk fracture to hack

and carve away some

awkward, ugly bits.

The final work cannot be seen

until it's fired, and all fires cold.

Paul knew: suffering and pain

are the truest ways,

the only ways for some of us,

to draw out that within

which answers to

the purpose of it all.

Terry Anderson was a journalist taken hostage in Beirut in the 1980's. After his release he wrote an insightful and powerful book called Den of Lions: A Startling Memoir of Survival and Triumph. It is an engrossing account of one's man's personal first hand experience in hell, with incredible self-disclosure. At various places in the account Anderson's poems have been interspersed. This one made an especially meaningful connection with me when I read it a few years back, and I share it with you hear.