Poem
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I began this poem years ago when my eldest son (now 23!) was much younger. I didn’t note the date on the typed copy I recently found, but I still distinctly remember him saying that the “world is a museum of leaves” as he surveyed the autumnal landscape. That phrase has stuck with me through…
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Tonight, in the search for my copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, serendipity led me to my copy of Philip Terman’s Our Portion: New and Selected Poems published in 2015. Sometimes we forget the gifts we have sitting on our shelves or within miles of our home. Years ago, I invited Philip Terman to speak to…
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“We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.” Martin Luther King, Jr. One way we peacefully protest comes in the form of vigils. According to The Guardian, this image captures, “Mourners [as they] pay their respects…
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“First of all, if you learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.“ Atticus Finch, To Kill a…
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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” First Amendment, The Bill of Rights Back in 2019, several…
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If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, you won’t fully appreciate what Wendell Berry offers in this haikuesque poem of just three lines. Come away from modernity to be still enough to catch this passing moment before the looming shadows of daily life hide, once again, the extraordinary deepening grounds waiting in plain sight. XX (2012)…
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Flipping through my copy of Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems, I found myself drawn to the poems that conclude the volume, echoes of the Mad Farmer filling the pages. Try as I might to find a softer piece for this post, I kept returning to this poem and the haunting refrain,…
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Life is full of transitions. For me, the end of summer comes a month early with a return to the classroom. Those days of school starting after Labor Day are long forgotten. Just before my summer vacation came to a close, I intentionally spent one last Sunday seated in my camping chair in the middle…
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Although it feels like I’m cheating just posting a single haiku, of all the remaining unpublished poems from my 2019 The Guardian Photo of the Day collection, this one keeps calling for my attention. I’ve posted other poems that tackle the concept of hope, like Lisel Mueller’s Hope, and recommended many others, such as Dickinson’s…
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Moving into a new week, I find Mary Oliver’s poetry rich with invitations to live life more fully, to deepen in the places where we have been planted, and to radiate joy in the midst of suffering, remembering our part in the glorious tapestry of life. I almost packed a few poems into this post,…
the deepening ground 