A Question For Anne

I know what she meant
when Anne Sexton wrote,
“To Bedlam and Part
Way Back.”
Yet that’s where our stories
diverge. She never made it
all the way back,
while she found the healing power
of poetry,
in her life,
like her contemporary,
Sylvia Plath,
she took her own life.
So, I want to ask you,
Anne,
in that next life
have you finished
your awful rowing
toward God?
Are you there, now?

By Bruce Whealton
November 18, 2009