Today, I am joining Bonny and friends today to share a bit of poetry. I *usually* read a couple of poems each morning, but a certain small someone has drastically altered my morning routine and I fell away from sitting with the quiet and reading a poem either with my eyes… or out loud to myself. I like to read poetry out loud very much. The poem I am sharing today is one of those poems that begs to be read aloud.
Thanks to Kym, this month I have been really focused on the kinship we all share in this corner of the internet… and more broadly – finding kinship in a very fractured world. This poem gives us a great starting point…
About Standing (in Kinship)
Kimberly M. Blaeser
We all have the same little bones in our foot
twenty-six with funny names like navicular.
Together they build something strong—
our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.
The bones don’t get casts when they break.
We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for support.
(Other things like sorrow work that way, too—
find healing in the leaning, the closeness.)
Our feet have one quarter of all the bones in our body.
Maybe we should give more honor to feet
and to all those tiny but blessed cogs in the world—
communities, the forgotten architecture of friendship.
About Standing (in Kinship). Copyright © 2021 by Kimberly M. Blaeser. First published in Poetry. Reprinted in Poetry of Presence II More Mindfulness Poems.
You can read more about Kimberly M. Blaeser here and here on her website.
Make sure you stop and visit Bonny and see who she has gathered up today!
See you all back here on Monday!
Now a tiny postscript for all you Ted Kooser fans out there (as well as those of you who don’t know you are a Kooser fan yet!) I listened to this episode of Poetry For All and… yes, it brought tears to my eyes. I have listened to it again several times since as well… it is just so good!
“In this episode, we offer close readings of poems from Ted Kooser’s Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison. Kooser’s poems allow us to think about the poem as a social act, as a form of healing, and as a kind of meditation.”
I also requested Kooser’s Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison from my library… I will be picking it up later today. I wanted to share with you all because I thought you too might need a bit of healing and meditation as the New Year rapidly approaches.
I don’t think of myself as an especially hard-hearted person, but it takes a lot to make me cry. This poem has me teary-eyed this morning! It’s just perfect, and one that I know I will read (out loud) many times as we head into the New Year.
And your bonus Ted Kooser postscript is a lovely gift to us! I am saving the podcast for later today and will also look for the book. I just read the story of Kooser’s postcard poetry correspondence with Jim Harrison and how this book came about. It sounds quite incredible and I thank you!
Kat, I don’t think I have ever commented on your blog, but this poem is quite beautiful. Thank you. Bonny directed me to you, and since I shared this with her, I feel the need to spread it around. It is the most life affirming thing I have seen in quite a while.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/doctors-words-affirmation-newborn-viral-online/story?id=116925039
That is really heartwarming! Thank you for sharing! And welcome!!
This poem feels especially relevant to me right now! I can honestly say that I’ve probably been thinking about my feet more than the average person in the last month and a half, but I certainly never thought of feet bones as a metaphor for connecting with others. Thank you so much for sharing this one!
Wow! Just Wow! What a wonderful poem. I love the line “…find healing in the leaning…” Thanks, too, of the Kooser info – I’ve enjoyed his poems for so long, but need to look for Winter Morning Walks.
What a perfect poem, Kat! Thank you! And Ted Kooser is a wonder. Thanks so much to the link to the podcast. I don’t often listen to podcasts, but I’m definitely going to tune in to that one. XO
Beautiful! Tangentially, with 1/4 of our bones in our feet, I’ve wondered why chiropractors don’t pay more attention to them?
What a beautiful poem. The book you mention of Kooser’s – Winter Morning Walks is one of my favorites. It’s on my shelf and is well loved. The year he was named Poet Laureate I was fortunate to hear him read several times. He lives not far from Lincoln and taught at University of Nebraska/Lincoln for a number of years. Lately he has maintained a low public profile and so I’m anxious to listen to the podcast and know when it was recorded.