Friday, December 2, 2011

THIS Morning


Each new moment contains a new shape for light

A medley of lines from very diverse poets fell together almost in this order for me last night and into this morning. I take this composition as a gift and a yes in the deepest attempt yet to become the writer I've always meant to be. I plan to read this often - especially mornings...

Light splashed this morning
on the shell-pink anemones
swaying on their tall stems;
down blue-spiked veronica --
Light flowed into rivulets
over the humps of the honeybees;
this morning I see light kiss
the silk of the roses
in their second flowering -
my late bloomers...
So I have shut the doors of my house,
so I have trudged downstairs to my cell...
I pick my notebook up...
"Light splashed..."
as it does each day,
as it does each day...*

Jars of springwater are not enough anymore.
Take us down to the river.

The face of peace, the sun itself.
No more the slippery, cloudlike moon.

Give us one clear morning after another,
and the one whose work remains unfinished,

who is our work as we diminish,
idle, though occupied, empty, and open.**

Work is its own cure. You have to like it
better than being loved...to sharpen one's vision
into the heart and nature of man.***

The past isn't dead, it isn't even past.****

I thank you God for most this amazing day:
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees/
and a bluetrue dream of sky.*****

Each moment solid and actual, yet numinous,
shot through with divine light and guidance. ******

End

* from Stanley Kunitz' poem "The Round
** Rumi "Jars of Spring Water" interpreted by Coleman Barks
*** this is two phrases made into one using Marge Piercy from "for the young who want to.." and Keats famed line
**** a somewhat well-known line from the poet Keats
*****the beginning of a famous poem by ee cummings
******Coleman Barks definition of ecstasy for Bill Moyers interview

I don't know where I found the image on top but it was in a free area on internet. If anyone knows, I'd be glad to give credit.

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