Facts of Life

Each day, I try to be a good listener. 

When the theologian and poet Pádraig Ó Tuama was here from Northern Ireland, he told me in an interview how he writes poems. 

"I love your poem The Facts of Life,” I said to him. "What was happening in your heart and mind and life as you wrote that poem?" I asked. 

"I don't know what other people are like," he began, "But certainly for me, a poem presents itself to you, and I have to write. I'm not very good at hanging on to them," he continued. "It's not just the words. You're listening to something. The words are that, but the words are evidence of the listening." 

I am like that in my listening and writing. The words present themselves to me, and I listen. The story is evidence of the listening.

I'm working on a novel. It has themes I love...migration...whales...genius in the simple...beauty in the plain...wonder in the ordinary. 

Holy listening happens in the small spaces between us.

They stood 

side by side, 

she reached 

for his hand, 

took it inside of hers. 

Their fingers 

intertwined,

their palms 

a small, open space 

between them. 

This place,

warm in the snow 

that covered the land 

of Point Hope, 

warm against the icy wind 

that blew 

off the Chukchi Sea. 

"Life is 

in the small, open spaces 

between us," 

said the old ones 

long ago," 

and so 

they stood quietly, 

hand in hand.

-Trevor Scott Barton, poems for a brown eyed girl, 2018

 You can listen to Pádraig’s poem The Facts of Life here - https://padraigotuama.bandcamp.com/track/the-facts-of-life