by Kat | Dec 19, 2024 | General, Poetry
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.
by Kat | Nov 21, 2024 | General, Poetry
I contemplated skipping the poetry today… because, I completely forgot about it. But I pulled out the poetry book I am reading this year (although, I have not read a lick of poetry from it since you know who arrived!) and serendipitously, it fell open to the poem I am sharing today.
A few more moments spent searching on Pexels for a photo that will work and before I knew it, the post was ready to share!
The poem is so very fitting for my life right now and I hope you enjoy it as well.
Clearing
Martha Postlethwaite
Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is yours alone to sing
falls into your open cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world,
so worthy of rescue.
Martha Postlethwaite, “Clearing.” Copyright © 2007 by Martha Postlethwaite. First published in The World of Prayer: Activists and Humanitarians Share Their Favorite Prayers (Orbis Books, 2012).
There is little about Ms. Postlethwaite on the interwebs and she has just a single book listed on Goodreads. I am ever so glad that this poem was included in Poetry of Presence II.
If you need more poetry in your life today, stop by and see who has gathered with Bonny today.
See you all back here on Monday with my word update!
Header photo by cottonbro studio
by Kat | Sep 19, 2024 | General, Poetry
It seems that my need for poetry this month has been directly tied to the state of the world around us… and so as the world gets uglier, I dive deeper into poetry. Poetry is most frequently a balm for me… a soothing salve that eases the bruises of the day. But sometimes poetry is more than a balm… it opens a door, invites me through, and shows me something rare and special.
The poem I selected today was one that I “stumbled” upon Sunday. It seems so very relevant today… I hope you find something rare and special inside this poem as well.
Halal Delicatessen
by Patrick Hicks
after the London bombings of July 7, 2005
The owner who made my falafel was gruff,
my smile and small talk lost in a desert.
But when his son, speaking a language I did not know,
came around the counter and tugged my jeans,
I have him my full attention.
He pointed at meat and salad,
saying the words that made them real.
I got down on one knee and pointed at trays,
which brought a feast of words to his lips.
He reached for my hand,
and tugged me into his kingdom.
Diced apples became tofah, bread was khobez,
he pointed at ice cream, helu, and his eyes bloomed.
If only it were this easy, always.
I thought of him as a grown man, oblivious
to this moment of hime that I will carry.
Later, we might pass each other on the street,
but today, I am the anchor of his universe.
His father wrapped my sandwich and, pausing,
passed two bottles of water into my hands.
“Hot today. You take these.”
His son looked on and pointed, ma’a,
he said, ma’a, of which we are all made.
Patrick Hicks, “Halal Delicatessen.” Copyright © 2009 by Patrick Hicks. First published in The Connecticut Review (Fall 2009).
If you want to know more about Patrick Hicks, you will find his very extensive website here.
Now go see who is joining Bonny today in gathering up some poetry! I will be back on Monday!
**Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich**
by Kat | Aug 15, 2024 | General, Poetry
Poetry has been a balm these days… and I have been reading more poetry than I usually do. Yet on Monday when I realized that this week was poetry round up week…well it was a bit of a surprise! And despite the volumes of poetry I have been immersed in I spent a few moments in angst about what I should share!
But on Tuesday I stumbled into a poem by Barbara Crooker in Poetry of Presence II… and the angst faded… this is poem I need to share today! (Thank you, dear Barbara!)
So here is my selection… I hope you find something delightful in it!
Queens
by Barbara Crooker
We are all just walking each other home.
— Ram Dass
I hadn’t taken the subway in fifty years, not since
I was an undergraduate, and I was nervous.
Back then, it was hard to navigate, as graffiti and peace
signs covered up the maps. But a friend from Queens
wanted to meet for lunch, so I took a deep breath
and set out, clutching the email she’d sent with directions.
Of course, now the maps are electronic, not readily
broken, and easy to read. But her station was confusing,
a maze of underground passages, and she’d warned me
I’d have to walk some distance if I went up the wrong
stairs. So I stood there, trying to align her text, match
her words to the nearby stores. An elderly East Asian
woman asked, You lost? She snatched the papers
from my hand. Okay. Follow me. Wielding her cane
like a weapon, she pushed pedestrians out of the way,
held it up like a banner as we crossed against the light
She pointed out the “good” fruit stands, wagged her fingers
at the “bad” ones, ignored the storefronts with elaborate
gold jewelry. She was my Italian grandmother, in a different skin.
When we reached my destination, she gave me back my papers.
Turn here. Friend lives there. And when I turned to thank her,
she was gone. Above, in the stunted city trees: the wind through
the leaves, the sound of rustling wings.
Queens. Copyright © 2021 by Barbara Crooker. First published in I-70 Review.
And that is it for me this week, see you all back here on Monday!
Make sure you stop and see what other poems Bonny is gathering today!
Header photo by Valentin S
by Kat | Jul 18, 2024 | General, Poetry
With all the chaos of the world right now, it feels like poetry is the only calm of my day. I have been circling back to familiar, comforting words from much loved poets.
Today, I thought you might like the same comfort from familiar words so today I am sharing Wendell Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things.
The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
The Peace of Wild Things © Wendell Berry
A huge thanks to Bonny for gathering up some poetry today in a week where extra poems are much needed.
See you all back here on Monday.
