Wednesday March 20 “add texture and evoke delight”
The poetry list was born from an intuition that in hard times, it’s important to watch one’s vocabulary. Some days “hard times” come at us as relentless gloomy weather, sometimes with frightening news from some place in the world, sometimes savage grief from a terrible loss. Poetry engages our imaginations on good days and bad.
Here’s the lead theme statement that appeared on day one of the Post September 25, 2013. It has served as the blog’s lead-off banner ever since, 565 poem-posts ago.
“In easy times you don’t have to be so careful about your language; you will spontaneously find playful words, wise with kindness. In hard times it helps to pay attention to word choices lest we slide into cynical, frightened or bitter language that biases our imaginations. The poems or sacred texts in these posts are beautiful, just the thing to pay attention to in hard times.” ~john sj
One of the list’s readers wrote this poem about 5 days ago and had the kindness to send it. Simple, clean language that touches my heart. Yours too, I’d bet. It’s short; best remember to pause and breathe.
Blessings to you in mid-week.
john sj
Today’s post – anonymous
glowing barren branches
glisten in the dawn
the beauty of this morning’s light
transforms the disheveled state of the yard
and my spirit
leaves left to overwinter and decay on the lawn
add texture and evoke delight
not despair
hope
february 26, 2018