08 Sep The sky is, is the limit by George T. Hole
I saw no sign in the sky
of what the Sunday priest promised.
Instead, I imagined
just in case.
a trusted safety net
high enough above
the char-pits for sinning.When I fell out of a tree
—no knowledge up there—
something did hold me up
from a deeper fall.
I bounced softly as if
on a trampoline
laced with a spider’s web.
Came back from off the ground
most of the way
on shaky legs to what
I knew as one-n-only me
with an arm broken.
Surgeries. Cancer. A kind of stroke
which left in my brain
a clot as a reminder:
That net, well used, feels now
—if still there—
frayed, with gaping holes
I dream of
falling through.
Philosophies, like chemo,
have lost their cure, though
I chase the miraculous next one.
Ever while, that rude squatter
leaves more clues of his inevitable
mark on my calendar. In spite of
hints of my final page, I protest:
I am lucky for my mysterious arrival
from nowhere, still here now,
who savors, among regrets,
an upsurge of thanks,
sustainable, I hope
until that time
the sky vanishes
the same instant I do.
About the Poet
George T. Hole is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Buffalo State University. He is the author of the essay collection Thinking Well about What Matters (West Group Publishing, 1993) and two full length poetry collections, Buffalo Dust (Buffalo Arts Publishing, June 2017), and The Sky’s the Limit (Buffalo Arts Publishing, December 2023). His poems have been published in Cimmaron Review, Rapport, Stone Drum, Earth’s Daughters, and Sugar Mule, as well as the Buffalo News. He has also published dozens of essays and critical pieces focusing on the intersection of philosophy and literature in scholarly journals.
Hole graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.A. in physics and a Ph.D. in philosophy, and is also in the University of Rochester’s Sports Hall of Fame for records in football and track. His courses in Zen Buddhism, Existentialism, the philosophy of love and sex, moral issues, and the history of the Greek philosophers helped inform his philosophical practice for decades at Buffalo State University.
He has advanced training from the Ellis Institute in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and runs a small counseling practice. He also conducts private Socratic-Dialogue and Mindful-Inquiry workshops.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.