I Feel Their Hands Upon Me by Ann Iverson

for my parents

They are strings of a violin
or light that filters through the trees
and through the thickness of this life
I feel their hands upon me.

They are a lamp
in a window,
the window named forever
they aren’t but are
and are forever light.

When they are music
their song does not sing.

When they are silent
their words cast shadows
upon my wall at night.

Nothing lasts
and nothing is complete.
They were perfectly imperfect
flawed but not at all
now graciously gone but here.

The most beautiful sorrow I ever saw
and when they are no more
but always will be, will be
they are tomorrow without a day before.

after Mary Jo Bang’s “You Were You are Elegy”

Ann Iverson is a writer and artist. She is the author of five poetry collections: Come Now to the Window by the Laurel Poetry Collective, Definite Space, and Art Lessons by Holy Cow! Press; Mouth of Summer and No Feeling is Final by Kelsay Books. She is a graduate of both the MALS and the MFA programs at Hamline University. Her poems have appeared in a wide variety of journals and venues including six features in the Writer’s Almanac.  Her poem "Plenitude" was set to a choral arrangement by composer Kurt Knecht. She is also the author and illustrator of two children's books.  As a visual artist, she enjoys the integrated relationship between the visual image and the written image.  Her artwork has been featured in several art exhibits as well as in a permanent installation at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital.  She is currently working on her sixth collection of poetry, a book of children's verse, and a collection of personal essays.