After I Fall Down the Stairs at the Golden Temple

“After I Fall Down the Stairs at the Golden Temple”

It is interesting that this falling

For a while I could not remember a word that I was in need of,
And I was bereaved and said: where are you beloved friend?  
 - Mary Oliver

A short poem by Mary Oliver.  I wonder if this was a metaphor or if she actually fell.  I think it’s a metaphor. Someone has suggested that perhaps what she means by a fall is just being old and forgetful. Because the poem is eventually about forgetting words.

And then yearning for them like they were your beloved.  Or perhaps she is “falling” in love. Falling in love with the words.  

Of course, what happens at the Golden temple is shabad kirtan. Literally, the praises of the word. These metaphors and feelings expressed in the poem abound in so many of the shabads often sung there. The one that comes to mind instantaneously after hearing her poem is the following shabad: