Tree Kind
I fell from one
Once and again
And in the breath
I struggled to take
Back again
I still called you
Friend
I cannot make flesh
That has its own
Or invent a spirit
When already imbued
The tree breathes
Out its own
31 January 2016
(in the global north)
I still wake up with jittery feelings. The sun is bright. The snow is melting down. Maybe I need it gone. But is that the boundary of my fear? I sit and look outside to see the beauty. I am inspired to come back and write a verse of two. Still, fear jumps inside me. At least it doesn’t leap. I’ll feel better, once I write a bit. Drink a hot drink, maybe take a pill or two pills. I know that on a good day my heart still operates in an iffy way. I know that what happened here was momentous. It’s momentous, still, outside. As in ancient Arabian architecture, I cherish space and righter light. Not simply looking out into amorphous glare. Rather the view of a virtuously bright and blue-skied world above with earth of desert browns beneath. Through arches made of genius and of grace, numbering the stars within each stone’s embrace.
I dream this is all easier, if not delightful, in a desert paradisal scene. Where arid becomes beautiful and free air moves through all, spirits borne and carried along. Maybe heaven’s healing wind will pause and wave upon me there, and I will feel and know something of the serene aspect of God.
Too much romance and earthly-bound, I know. But I need this. My fear frankly needs it, as does my hope and peace.
Psalm 26
a song of dissatisfaction
You know, Lord,
sometimes in spite
of all of my deficiencies,
I am dissatisfied
with what I have. I
don’t wish to be
un-thankful, but
there it is. I wish
things were better.
I wish the world were
giving and forthcoming
in all its parts and
places.
I wish we were better
people—generous to
strangers, open to
the differences that
others bring into all
our overlapping circles.
I wish we were more
grateful. Start with me.
To anyone whose reading. There are names with links for some truly fine blogs given below. I invite and encourage you to visit them.
Thank you, Call Me Cordelia, whose blog about reading and writing—and cooking—makes me smile. Thank you for the timing of the award. As you note, it’s a great time of year (in the northern regions of the world) in which to be reminded of the spring-upcoming, rewarding sunshine. I’m kind of season-shocked from Storm Jonas and after. This recognition warms.
Call Me Cordelia’ blog, https://iwouldratherread.wordpress.com/
Call Me Cordelia’s award post, https://iwouldratherread.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/sunshine-blogger-award/
(Cordelia’s) Questions for the Nominees:
1. What or who inspired you to blog?
2. Do you write outside of your blog?
3. What is your biggest fear regarding reading and/or cooking and/or traveling?
4. Describe the best thing you ever created.
5. What book belongs on everyone’s bookshelf?
6. What is the one thing that is definitely overrated?
7. Which book was so vivid, you could visualize the characters and plot as if you were watching a movie?
8. Truth, which movie did you like better than the book?
9. What always makes you smile, no matter what’s going on?
10. Where is the most beautiful place you’ve been?
11. Have you read War and Peace? If yes, what did you think? If no, why not?
My Responses
1. My spiritual director recommended I blog. I think he thought it might turn out commercially for me. I’m enjoying it avocationally, however.
2. Yes. I’ve been keeping a journal—haphazardly at first, then pretty much daily since I got back home from open-heart surgery. When teaching, I write a great deal for work.
3. I’m claustrophobic and acrophobic. I fly in planes, though it’s a challenge. My fear in cooking is sickening my guests. So far that hasn’t happened. I have eye strain when reading. Hopefully, it will never get more difficult than that.
4. Since have no children and cannot take credit for creating a cat, I guess I’d say a couple of poems that I wrote that made folk cry (in a good way).
5. One can know God without the Bible, so I think I’ll say The Hobbit. About what happens when someone ordinary must exceed self-expectation in order to become heroic.
6. Excess. Our society says excess is good. It’s not.
7. Ghost Story by Peter Straub. I got so engrossed and frightened by the plot, I put the novel down. But I had grown to care about the characters, so I picked it up again.
8. The Princess Bride.
9. Cleverness makes me smile. Whether it was in my cat or in the precocious children whom I know. That’s an especially good question. I hadn’t thought about this before.
My questions for nominees:
1. Do you have a favorite season? Can you say why?
2. What do you like to read? Any kinds of reads you like? Do you have a favorite text? (Which is?)
3. Why do you write?
4. Why do you keep a blog? How did you start? Was someone else involved (and, if you don’t mind saying, who)?
5. Do you have a favorite way to write? A favorite place?
6. When you’re not writing or reading, what else do you like to do?
7. What would you like to do when you grow up? (I’m still working on this.)
8. What is a text (doesn’t have to be your favorite) that you think everyone should read and have at hand (if only to recommend to someone else)?
9. So far, based on your notion of beauty, what is the most beautiful place you have been to?
10. Besides your blog, what else do you write?
11. Today (besides responding to these questions, naturally!), what will you do that you enjoy?
My Nominees (I’m thinking sunshine as I write–and I’ll be in touch)
Sabethville, https://sabethville.wordpress.com/
SOMETIMES, http://mumbletymuse.com/
Stray Coffee Breaks, https://straycoffee.wordpress.com/
Only One Hundred Words, https://sonyca.wordpress.com/
in media res, http://melindakucsera.com/
Ishma Imroz, https://ishmaimroz.wordpress.com/
What the Woman Wrote, https://whatthewomanwrote.wordpress.com/
angieInspired, https://angieinspired.wordpress.com/
Jacki Kellum Juxtapositions, https://jackikellum.wordpress.com/
Invisible World, https://invisibleworldd.wordpress.com/
Sanghramitra’s Blog, https://sanghamitrachakrabarty.wordpress.com/
If you maintain an award-free blog, that’s fine, of course. You may simply (and only) enjoy the nomination.
If I’ve nominated you before or elsewhere, well, there are all-new questions (some swiped from others—I mean, respectfully borrowed as an homage) here! Have a go!
If I haven’t nominated you and I should have, I apologize. And for any mistakes I’ve made in transferring blog links, in my own writing, and so forth.
For those of you who fully respond to the nomination, Thanks and Celebrate the Sunshine!
The Award Rules
• Thank the person who nominated you!
• Answer the 11 questions you were asked.
• Nominate 11 other bloggers and let them know they were nominated.
• Ask the nominees 11 questions. Use others’ questions. Compose your own.
• Copy and place the award logos at your blog, as a shiny icon of distinction.
These Are the Voyages
(28 January 1986)
Thirty years ago and less or
More, there was Apollo 1,
Challenger, and Columbia
Source and cause of death
In rising through the skies;
Reluctant, stubborn loss in
Exploration—first mission
To the Moon, first teacher
Into pace, and a flight we’d
Grown too used to thinking
Ordinary—limited and limitless,
We were reminded; now in
Vision foresworn and sworn
Again, these guard our flights
On toward all our heavens,
Treasuring what in dreams
Will be manifest—we in faith,
Voyagers relentless, we
Travel closer to our God of
Discovery, all of us tied now
In tribute sentinel sacrifice
(Note. Remember the first USA
Space shuttle? It was Enterprise)
(response to Denmark’s new law)
First Words Depending on Where Refugees Arrive
Welcome to our nation
Give us everything you have
Welcome to our nation
We need to assay all you own
Welcome to our nation
How will you contribute?
Welcome to our nation
We have to screen you first
Welcome to your nation
Let’s get you settled here
Psalm 25
a song of after-celebration
It’s not Sunday, no
Official day of rest
But unofficially we
At home are done with
Formal celebration
Unusually fine food,
Goods in boxes wrapped
Just-so, paper, sticky
Tape, silk ribbons—all
Now vestiges
All the tries at sweeping
Up glitter and confetti,
Finished for a time
(Glitter on a surface
Somewhere, somewhen,
A sparkling moment of
Quiet surprise to come)
Cups are filled with
Plain coffee now
The dogs and other
Pets are tired, next
To us and at peace
We enjoy a holiday
Without the holiday
Happy and less-sated,
Gazing at our decorations
Also now at rest
Sipping our hot morning
Drinks (or cool), looking
Out glass panels upon a
Sun-lit, dampened yard
Lord, please pardon, if this
Is for us the better
Holiday after-day
Psalm 24
a song of in-between
What do we do on an in-between
Day? How might we please
You, Lord, on this kind of day?
If we do small things—speak
More softly and with civility
To those we know and those
Whom we encounter;
If we see the grey wash of
Sky and appreciate that it
Is not a sky of harsher conflict;
If we enjoy the colors, textures
That we have (even awash) and
Simple meals within our means
To have three times—post-dawn,
At midday, and again in twilight;
If we choose to look at harmony
And listen to the view—if
We accomplish these diminutive
Tasks, maybe without thinking,
Might we still please you? We
Do hope so and so we pledge,
Even if all around us is
An indifferent age
clcouch123 
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