Monday February 10, 2014<\/p>\n
Thinking about these work day posts has led me to look around for poets new to me. \u00a0A friend, some years ago, gave me \u00a0David Whyte’s The House of Belonging<\/span>. \u00a0Her gift note wishes me a happy 60th so that puts it 14 years back. \u00a0It’s been sitting on my shelf waiting for me to pay attention. \u00a0Someone, the poet and my friend who gave this book to me, have created a place waiting for me to find it. \u00a0That’s the point of David Wagoner’s poem “Lost” which leads off David Whyte’s book. \u00a0It’s blown me away and \u00a0so far I haven’t gotten past it.<\/p>\n “Lost” echoes a wisdom many Lakota friends taught me 50 years ago when I came to the Pine Ridge Reservation to learn how to teach and to become a grown up. \u00a0I use 3 short sayings as one of my email signatures.<\/p>\n a wisdom-saying born on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation<\/span><\/p>\n “Time spent baking bread follows the\u00a0pace\u00a0of yeast”<\/p>\n “Motorcycling alone; I move as\u00a0a\u00a0 tiny person in a vast world”<\/p>\n “If I pause long enough, I \u00a0hear the sound of grass growing, \u00a0and trees, each\u00a0at its own pace.”<\/p>\n Here’s David Wagoner’s way to say something similar. \u00a0Welcome to a new work week in the middle of February.<\/p>\n john sj<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lost<\/strong><\/p>\n Stand still.\u00a0\u00a0 The trees ahead and bushes beside you<\/p>\n Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,<\/p>\n And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,<\/p>\n Must ask permission to know it and be known.<\/p>\n The forest breathes.\u00a0 Listen.\u00a0 It answers,<\/p>\n I have made this place around you.<\/p>\n If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.<\/p>\n No two trees are the same to Raven.<\/p>\n No two branches are the same to Wren.<\/p>\n If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,<\/p>\n You are surely lost.\u00a0 Stand still. The forest knows<\/p>\n Where you are. You must let it find you.<\/p>\n David Wagoner (1976)<\/p>\n {Frontispiece in\u00a0 David Whyte,\u00a0 The House of Belonging,<\/span> Many Rivers Press, 1997}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday February 10, 2014 Thinking about these work day posts has led me to look around for poets new to me. \u00a0A friend, some years ago, gave me \u00a0David Whyte’s The House of Belonging. \u00a0Her gift note wishes me a … Continue reading