Sunday, November 16, 2014

Being With "Morning Poem," by Mary Oliver

I was just reading aloud the  Mary Oliver poem "Morning Poem" to my husband, Karl.  It made me realize that I misspoke recently when I said I didn't like this book as well as later books. In reality, I just had not taken the time to feel it, read it, appreciate it and "be with it." I believe there is a life lesson here that I get to think more about and be with longer.


7:20a.m. Morning, Birch Lake, Minnesota

Morning Poem

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead ---
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging ---

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted ---

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.


                      Mary Oliver
                      New and Selected Poems, Vol. One, 1992

Monday, November 10, 2014

The Muse



The Muse, Nov. 10, 2014

"Images of the past came to her mind,
And her future dawned upon her.
She felt the light again and remembered-

'Live in the present moment.' " 

from the poem titled: "Experience" by Jasmine Kang
FB Page Source: Women's Spiritual Poetry


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Stronger For Karen

Stronger Together For Karen B., Nov. 2014

STRONGER TOGETHER

"You are surrounded by love,
By acceptance; a force-field of support.
You are strong on your own.
You are stronger together."

~ Mariann Martland~
FB Page Source: Women's Spiritual Poetry

For my dear friend Karen for whom I'm attending a Zumbathon Shake It For Scleroderma Fundraiser today.  We'll all be dancing to the zumba instructors beat to raise money and awareness about this terrible disease.

Hands Are Full

  petrichor   heavy in the air   fills our hands