other deepening places
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Though you likely won’t find this excerpt from Tennyson’s immortal poem In Memoriam A. H. H. on any top ten list of love poems (by the way, here’s a list I liked), I would argue that section 27 deserves the honor of being labeled one of the most powerful love poems ever written. Tennyson commemorates…
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Admittedly, I should have posted this yesterday to allow you all the time to Sabbath either on Saturday or Sunday with this Wendell Berry wafer. But as these days are full with life and activity, this post had to wait until now. And yet, the timelessness of Berry’s wisdom about “how to be alive” ever…
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Once again, My Pastoral Ponderings offers a wonderful poem that I’ve never read before and that ministers life to my soul as part of his Poem of the Week series. Forgiveness of others and ourselves is such a powerful, freeing gift, and yet, one we struggle mightily to give freely. Such a rich post and…
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Today we revisited Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope” is the thing with feathers as we explored how metaphor helps us better understand the abstract concepts of life like love, joy, anger, and hope. Dickinson’s extended metaphor comparing hope to a bird always reminds me of the following poem by Lisel Mueller, where she expands that single…
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To close the year, let me share with you one gift my daughter shared with me this Christmas as a charge for the new year. Along with a copy of Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems, Ethney gave me a beautiful sonnet inspiring us to nurture our imaginations and feed the fires…
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In the midst of my series of Advent Tankas, I still wanted to share this Mary Oliver gem that I read a few weeks ago thanks to an email thread I receive at work. Though the snows have already arrived here in Grove City, it’s not until Wednesday that Winter officially begins. As we head…
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This post resonated with me today as I read it over lunch. A fitting reminder for the Advent season from one of my favorite deepening grounds: Wendell Berry! Remembering that it happened once. A Sabbath poem by Wendell Berry. Remembering that it happened once | Wendell Berry (Sabbath Poems 1987:VI)
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Thanksgiving may have passed, but may the life found around the kitchen table never end! To my delight, I came across this Joy Harjo poem today and knew immediately that I needed to share this deepening place. There’s good earth here and Harjo’s profound realism and imagery invites us all to savor every sweet bite…
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I just couldn’t sit on this one, even if Walt Whitman Wednesdays sounds catchy. I’ve known this poem since I first heard it years ago in the movie Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams. A fellow AP English teacher I’ve followed for the past two years shared it in her post this week (along with…
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Fall and Mary Oliver today. From a wonderful collection of poetry titled Why I Wake Early. Admittedly, waking early isn’t in my vocabulary, save for the demand my job puts upon me as a high school English teacher. But for sights such as these, I would race the sun out of bed, “[t]o love what…
