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Posts tagged ‘poetry’

Jul 13

Ordinary Sugar

“Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.” – Novalis

“Ordinary sugar coaxed to its epiphany.” – Amanda Gunn

The power of poetry to transform.
The dance of words to delight.
The pause to witness, acknowledge, embrace.
Ordinary to epiphany.
Daily life.
Satisfied in the weeding, watering, tending, growing.
May the prose of today give you peace, grace and joy.
Enter the poem.
Sometimes, sweet as sugar.

“She’d mastered,
in a life, how to grow
a winter meal, to till, to weed,
to water, to tend, learned how,
I hope, to be satisfied.” – Amanda Gunn

Ordinary Sugar poem here featured on Poetry Unbound with Pádraig Ó Tuama.

Jun 19

Light, Laughter and Grace

“We’re here for a little window. And to use that time to catch and share shards of light and laughter and grace seems to me the great story.”― Brian Doyle, One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder

“To create a space for all our words, Drawing us to listen inward and outward. We seldom notice how each day is a holy place Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens, Transforming our broken fragments Into an eternal continuity that keeps us. Somewhere in us a dignity presides That is more gracious than the smallness That fuels us with fear and force, A dignity that trusts the form a day takes. So at the end of this day, we give thanks For being betrothed to the unknown And for the secret work Through which the mind of the day And wisdom of the soul become one.”― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

May I experience the immensity of this day.
To not let it pass without giving and receiving light.
To paint brilliant color on the blank canvas.
To delight in all that surrounds and is within.
To connect with others to share our journey.
To embrace awe, wonder and joy without question.
To write the story, paint the scene, live life that passes quickly.
Shards of light, laughter and grace.

“May I live this day Compassionate of heart, Clear in word, Gracious in awareness, Courageous in thought, Generous in love.”― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Jun 7

Hope Perching

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.” – Emily Dickinson

From before to after, hope remains.
Gritty and tough.
Light and persistent.
A thing with feathers.
Carrying us through.

May 27

1 Comment

Each New Wave

“Art replaces the light that is lost when the day fades, the moment passes, the evanescent extraordinary makes its quicksilver. Art tries to capture that which we know leaves us, as we move in and out of each other’s lives, as we all must eventually leave this earth. Great artists know that shadow, work always against the dying light, but always knowing that the day brings new light and that the ocean which washes away all traces on the sand leaves us a new canvas with each wave.”― Elizabeth Alexander, The Light of the World

“Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,

overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way

to get from here to there.”

― Elizabeth Alexander

In corners
In conversations
In details
Poetry of life
Dailyness
Grace and gratitude
Awe and wonder
Enter and submerge in the ordinary
Sharpened senses
Letting in the glory and new light
A new canvas with each new wave.

“…now I know my capacity for awe
is infinite: this thirst is permanent,
the well bottomless, my good fortune vast.”― Elizabeth Alexander

Apr 24

Softer, Kinder, Opened Wide

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu

“Arrives, year after year, humble and obedient
And gorgeous. You listen and you know
You could live a better life than you do, be
Softer, kinder. And maybe this year you will
Be able to do it. Hear how his voice
Rises and falls. There is no way to be
Sufficiently grateful for the gifts we are
Given, no way to speak the Lord’s name
Often enough, though we do try, and

Especially now, as that dappled breast
Breathes in the pines and heaven’s
Windows in the north country,
Now spring has come,
Are opened wide.” – Mary Oliver, Spring

Porous, durable, bendable.
Softer, kinder.
Yielding and rooted.
Open to receive.
Pour back out again.
Water smoothing the rock.
Spring unfolding before you.
Within you.

“If a branch is too rigid, it will break. Resist, and you will perish. Know how to yield, and you will survive.”― Liezi, Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

Aug 17

In the Pause

“Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of the Earth’s greenings. Now, think.” – Hildegard of Bingen

“Rather than going for the high moment of drama, the high moment of the erotic, the high moment of the extraordinary, poetry will choose the small moment of pause just to look at what’s really happening, to look at a few layers deep and to let that small pause, that ordinary moment, open up with all the fullness of its being to us.” – Pádraig Ó Tuama

A pause
A glance
A moment
Embrace
Be held
Poetry in the ordinary

Jul 4

1 Comment

The Work

“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.” – Rosa Parks

May we never cease striving for freedom for self and others.
In thought, word, action.
Connected. Generous. Kind.
Peace. Love. Light.
The work of a lifetime.

Keep A-Pluggin’ Away
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

“I’ve a humble little motto
That is homely, though it’s true,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
It’s a thing when I’ve an object
That I always try to do,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
When you’ve rising storms to quell,
When opposing waters swell,
It will never fail to tell,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.

If the hills are high before
And the paths are hard to climb,
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
And remember that successes
Come to him who bides his time,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
From the greatest to the least,
None are from the rule released.
Be thou toiler, poet, priest,
Keep a-pluggin’ away.

Delve away beneath the surface,
There is treasure farther down,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
Let the rain come down in torrents,
Let the threat’ning heavens frown,
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
When the clouds have rolled away,
There will come a brighter day
All your labor to repay,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.

There ‘ll be lots of sneers to swallow.
There’ll be lots of pain to bear,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
If you’ve got your eye on heaven,
Some bright day you’ll wake up there,
Keep a-pluggin’ away.
Perseverance still is king;
Time its sure reward will bring;
Work and wait unwearying,—
Keep a-pluggin’ away.”

Jul 1

1 Comment

Sky Song

“Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,
“You owe me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.”
― Hafiz

A canvas
A possibility
An opening
An invitation

To bigness
To expanse
To dance
To delight

Composition
Rhythm
The poetry of a summer’s day coming to a close.
Lighting up more than the sky.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)
by William Shakespeare

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

Jun 25

1 Comment

Essence

“Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself.” – Annie Leibovitz

essence
nuance
layers
complexity
beneath
below
beyond
hidden
hinting
beauty
revealed in gazing
lingering
inquiry
listening
observation
silence
embedded in engaging
relationship
conversation
understanding
compassion
expand beyond self
connect
invite
welcome
expand your world

May 31

Sway

“What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” – E. M. Forster

Winds surge.
Storms to come.
Trees sway.
Moving with, not against.
The flow.
Bending rather than breaking.
Stretching, dancing, accepting.

The Wind
by Robert Louis Stevenson

“I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass–
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all–
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!”

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