Sheri A. Butler
Sheri A. Butler, M.D., is an adult training and consulting analyst in the child division at the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. A published poet and member of TAP’s editorial board, she welcomes readers’ comments, suggestions and poetry submissions at annseattle1@gmail.com.
Mali Mann is a training and supervising analyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. She is also a child supervising analyst. We have featured her poetry before, in this column, and are very pleased with her latest work. She is a member of Pegasus Physician at Stanford University, a forum for sharing poetry with other physician poets.
Clara Schumann’s Loss and Love
Virtuoso pianist, Clara,
wife, but an untimely widow
mother, whose unborn child never arrived,
lost the ones who were her born ones too.
her pouring tears came like rain,
words ran off in silence.
and, time travelled on.
Fleeting Eros flew over the curtains of cloud
landed gently, circled above her chest.
The longing gaze anchored in her eyes.
The sad, tender and lavished intermezzi
Surrounded the pair like circled arms
Composed new dreams, fears and longings
echoed wild in her newly born sonata
the imagining me envisions two like one
in a warm July night, looking on shimmering stars.
No one could be heard; the time was let to go
Rising rhythm of her fingers on highflying keys was made
walking in the meadow in tiptoes, whispered not,
their dream of one sonic world
Letting the late blooming roses only speak of love
—Mali Mann