This is Poetry Moment on WPSU – a weekly program featuring the work of contemporary Pennsylvania poets. Your host is poet and author Marjorie Maddox, a 2023 Monson Arts Fellow, author of more than 20 books, and Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at the Lock Haven campus of Commonwealth University.
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Welcome to Poetry Moment. I’m Marjorie Maddox
This year Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, falls on October 1. Beginning at sunset the evening before, Jews devote time to prayer, meditation, and fasting. Also known as Day of Atonement, it is a time of acknowledging wrongs, as well as granting and receiving forgiveness. In her poem, “Season of Mending,” Robbi Nester conveys how even small gestures can “mend the past [and] repair the world.” In today’s world, don’t we all need more of that?
Robbi Nester was born and raised in Philadelphia, but moved to Southern California in 1980, where she still resides. She is the editor of three anthologies and author of five books of poetry, most recently the ekphrastic collection About to Disappear from Shanti Arts. She currently hosts two monthly poetry reading series: Verse-Virtual monthly readings and Words with You, which is part of The Poetry Salon online. Learn more at http://www.robbinester.net [robbinester.net]
Robbi Nester recites her poem “Season of Mending” every year at synagogue—and also in yoga class! Not unlike the Christian practice— “I confess…for what I have done and what I have failed to do”—the poem calls us to action. During this “season of mending,” may we listen and respond.
Here’s “Season of Mending” by Robbi Nester.
Season of Mending
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All my life, I’ve left a trail of broken things—
first mangled toys, lost game pieces, missing
cards, then bungled knitting, fallen cakes,
buttons that won’t stay sewn.
Relationships as well break down:
harsh words can’t be unsaid;
candor cools lifelong alliances.
At first, I never tried to fix such breaks,
just moved on, hoping for better luck.
Now, buried in the drifts of what I’ve
left behind, I turn to mending.
From the drain, I extract a lost earring,
from a pile of papers, a letter I meant
to send. I apologize for everything
I said or didn’t, for not expressing what
I felt or speaking when I shouldn’t have.
With these small gestures, let me
mend the past, repair the world.
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That was “Season of Mending” by Robbi Nester. Thanks for listening.
Listen for Poetry Moment with Marjorie Maddox Mondays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on WPSU. You can more episodes at wpsu.org/poetrymoment.
Our theme music is by Eric Ian Farmer.
