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Posts tagged ‘poetry’

Oct 11

Keep Looking

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”― Mary Oliver

“Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for your eyes.

It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of a single heart.
It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life- just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe
Still another…

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

Steadfast and curious
Sun and blade of grass
Telescope and microscope
Look again and again
To see the same differently
When too close pull back
When too far move in
The dance of presence, attention, grace.

“You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.”― Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

Oct 3

October Blooming

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!” ― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

October
by Robert Frost

“O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.”

New month
Ushering in a new season
Summer lingers a bit longer
Soon to fall into fall
To begin again and again
Unfolding and unfurling
Mostly slow
Sometimes swift
Always blooming
Oh for eyes and heart to trust, wait, hope
For the gift of ordinary days
Extraordinary grace and joy
October blooming, planting seeds too.

“Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.”― Melville Herman

Sep 19

1 Comment

No Scarcity of Delight

“Delight is all around us you know, from the food we eat, to the night sky, to the dreams we have. It surrounds us with every moment, you just have to stop and take it in whenever you can.”― Jonathan Maas, Horsemen

The Patience of Ordinary Things
by Pat Schneider

“It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?”

In abundance.
Simple things.
Ordinary days.
New eyes required, attention too..
On the ground of now.
Windows open wide.
Fresh air of joy.
No scarcity of delight.

“So today I’m recalling the utility, the need, of my own essayettes to emerge from such dailiness, and in that way to be a practice of witnessing one’s delight, of being in and with one’s delight, daily, which actually requires vigilance. It also requires faith that delight will be with you daily, that you needn’t hoard it. No scarcity of delight.”― Ross Gay, The Book of Delights: Essays

Sep 9

Grand Spectacles

“Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.”― Thomas de Quincey

The Sun by Mary Oliver

“Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any
language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?”

Between sunrise and sunset
May peace, joy, delight visit
Be interrupted, delayed, held up
For a long conversation
Beauty abound
Do not pass it by.

Sep 7

1 Comment

Autumn Hymn

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower” – Albert Camus

Song for Autumn by Mary Oliver

“In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come – six, a dozen – to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.”

Green to gold
Swift to slow
Beauty woven into each season
To savor
Hold briefly
Unfolding to something new to sing.

Jul 4

Sky Open, Light Cast

“I need a song that will keep sky open in my mind. If I think behind me, I might break. If I think forward, I lose now.”― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

“To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear
Can’t know except in moments
Steadly growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.”
― Joy Harjo

Freedom
Peace
Kindness
Hope
Generosity
Faith
Trust
Seeds
Grace
Light
Steadfastness
Fidelity
Fresh meaning
Love
Keep the sky open in my mind and heart
Amen
Prayer for this day and each day

“Bless the poets, the workers for justice,
the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache,
the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh
meaning—We will all make it through,
despite politics and wars, despite failures
and misunderstandings. There is only love.”
― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

May 29

Eyes to Begin Anew, Again and Again

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.”― John Ruskin

“Suddenly, sun. Over my shoulder
in the middle of gray November
what I hoped to do comes back,
asking.

Across the street the fiery trees
hold onto their leaves,
red and gold in the final months
of this unfinished year,
they offer blazing riddles.

In the frozen fields of my life
there are no shortcuts to spring,
but stories of great birds in migration
carrying small ones on their backs,
predators flying next to warblers
they would, in a different season, eat.

Stunned by the astonishing mix in this uneasy world
that plunges in a single day from despair
to hope and back again, I commend my life
to Ruskin’s difficult duty of delight,
and to that most beautiful form of courage,
to be happy.” – Jeanne Lohmann

Seasons, circles, rhythms.
Ebb and flow of living present.
Awake and aware.
Unfolding and becoming.
Familiar yet not the same.
As Heraclitus’ said “no man ever steps in the same river twice”
Our daily work?
To be in this day alone and know that we have arrived.
In being not doing.
To the difficult duty of delight.
With courage to be happy now, not someday when.
Senses honed, fresh eyes to take in beauty, abase and abound.

“Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.”― John Ruskin, The Two Paths

May 13

Another Story

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” – Saint Augustine

“There’s always another story. There’s more than meets the eye.”― W.H. Auden

May I be better at counting what is already present and available
Recording rights
Racking up joy
Frivolous with kindness
Hoarding awareness
Hearty with laughter
Harboring reverence
Rapt with attention
Careless with forgiveness, compassion, empathy
Slow to judge, assume, name, dismiss
Quick to inquiry
Choosing abundance over scarcity
Blown away again and again by simple beauty, abase and abound
Wandering aimlessly into unknowing, unlearning, undoing
On the hunt for wonder, awe, delight
Swift to praise, encouragement, enthusiasm
A bleeding heart, a sucker for believing in goodness, light, generosity
Early to welcoming, inviting and hospitality
Saving chairs at the table of love.

“There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story. ”― Mary Lou Kownacki

Mar 29

Might as Well Love

“Peace isn’t a feeling. It’s a practice, a daily choosing a stubborn, sacred hope. But even in our deepest divisions, something new is still possible…may we find the courage to be peacemakers. To stay at the table. To believe, against all odds, that love still has work to do here. And maybe, just maybe, that it starts with us. – Kate Bowler

The Facts of Life by Pádraig Ó Tuama

“That you were born
and you will die.

That you will sometimes love enough
and sometimes not.

That you will lie
if only to yourself.

That you will get tired.

That you will learn most from the situations
you did not choose.

That there will be some things that move you
more than you can say.

That you will live
that you must be loved.

That you will avoid questions most urgently in need of
your attention.

That you began as the fusion of a sperm and an egg
of two people who once were strangers
and may well still be.

That life isn’t fair.
That life is sometimes good
and sometimes better than good.

That life is often not so good.

That life is real
and if you can survive it, well,
survive it well
with love
and art
and meaning given
where meaning’s scarce.

That you will learn to live with regret.
That you will learn to live with respect.

That the structures that constrict you
may not be permanently constraining.

That you will probably be okay.

That you must accept change
before you die
but you will die anyway.

So you might as well live
and you might as well love.
You might as well love.
You might as well love.”

Poetry to lift.
Kindness to connect.
Laughter to lighten.
Music to dance.
Wonder to awaken.
Awe to reverence.
Patience to wait.
Joy to steady.
Hope to pull.
Peace to offer.
Light to cast.
Love to live well.
Is there a better place?
Might as well love.

“To accept the lively, the messy, and the unexpected things in our days, knowing that God sees them and has an eternal perspective, is to say with confidence I receive your timing.”― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

Mar 16

Invisible Cloak

“Spirituality is about what we do about the fire inside of us, about how we channel our eros.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing

BEANNACHT – Beautifully read by John O’Donohue, one of my favorite poets

“On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.
And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The gray window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colors, Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
In the curragh of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.” – John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Peace
Be Still
Nourishment, clarity, fluency, protection
An invisible, profound, grounding, freeing, all encompassing, overwhelming place and space
At your feet
A blessing, cup overflowing, love, awe, contentment, ease
Right where you are
Within you awaiting your arrival
Peace
Be Still
Welcome home.

“But within ourselves we can experience a real difference between restlessness and solitude. What is that difference? It is the difference between living in freedom rather than compulsion; restfulness rather than restlessness; patience rather than impatience; inwardness rather than frenzied outwardness; altruism rather than greediness; authentic friendship rather than possessive clinging; and empathy rather than apathy.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Restless Heart

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