Happy New Year! I know it’s past the middle of January but it’s the first time I’ve been able to say that to you all. I wish good things for you this year of 2011. I hope it will be a year of good health, happiness, and finding risks to take that will open your [...]
“the way it is with children”
Today I read an editorial on Anne Rice’s recent comment about no longer professing to be Christian. She claims to continue to be a “follower of Christ”, but rejects “being anti-gay, anti-feminist “. . . ultimately “anti-life.” . . . . her brief but brutal description of what Christianity has become. She refuses to allow the heart of her [...]
In Defense of Delight
Do you know of the poet Jack Gilbert, or his profoundly moving poem, A Brief for the Defense? I was reading this poem aloud to a friend tonight, and realized that I had to simply ditch the post I was intending to polish then publish, and instead, share this provokingly powerful poem with you, too. I will not attempt to tell you what he says in the poem, for I couldn’t possibly do it justice. Please use one of the links in this post to give yourself the gift. I will, however, tell you that this is how it starts: “Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.”
The Grace of Gradual Change
I think we all know that any REAL risk will push our comfort zones, but I’ve realized in the past few weeks that some zones are more uncomfortable than others. Consider my January daily audacious goal to write or edit a poem five days a week. I was excited about it, many of you were kind [...]
This is the Key
This is the Key from Come Hither, edited by Walter de la Mare. This is the Key of the Kingdom. In that Kingdom is a city; In that city is a town; In that town there is a street; In that street there winds a lane; In that lane there is a yard; In that yard there is a house; In [...]
An Invitation to Risk being Faithless
In the glorious poem, “The Invitation,” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, there is a line that I have often questioned. And yesterday, while writing my post about feeling all my feelings, I think I came upon the answer, at least for me. The line is: “I want to know… if you can be faithless and therefore [...]
Will You Allow Yourself to Hatch?
Here’s another poem from Shel Silverstein that I love: “I Will Not Hatch” Oh I am a chickie who lives in an egg, But I will not hatch, I will not hatch. The hens they all cackle, the roosters all beg, But I will not hatch, I will not hatch. For I hear all the [...]
Are You Taking Risks or Listening to the Warnings of Fear?
Back in the early 1990’s, I had the honor of performing the world premiere of a song cycle, based on the poetry of Shel Silverstein. Prior to that time, I had thought of Mr. Silverstein’s work as solely for children. And it’s true that children all over the world do love his poetry, prose, and [...]
Mary Oliver, Again, Still, Always!
For now, for this week anyway, this is the last Mary Oliver poem I’ll post… After reading this one, I dare you to ask yourself what risk the wild geese are calling you to take… Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a [...]
