{"id":3644,"date":"2020-09-30T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3644"},"modified":"2020-09-30T14:30:41","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T18:30:41","slug":"wednesday-sept-30-gerard-manley-hopkins-the-power-and-beauty-of-ordinary-human-sadness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/09\/30\/wednesday-sept-30-gerard-manley-hopkins-the-power-and-beauty-of-ordinary-human-sadness\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, Sept 30 – Gerard Manley Hopkins — “the power and beauty of ordinary human sadness”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, September 30
\n“It \u00eds the blight man was born for,
\nIt is Margaret you mourn for.\u201d<\/p>\n

This demanding Hopkins poem speaks of the power and beauty of ordinary human sadness. \u00a0Pretty much every work day in the year invites our attention to work-pressure but also to what we notice when we pause, breathe, and invite stillness into the pace of living.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you breathed yet today\u201d? \u00a0This has been a question many women and men, soul friends, plant lightly in the hustle of my life, and I plant the same question in their lives too. \u00a0 This afternoon, that question brings me back to Len Waters, sj. \u00a0Len taught me and other college age young adults in his classes. \u00a0He challenged us to believe that our lives are alive with beauty, that sadness opens us to beauty as freshly as playfulness does. \u00a0 Len taught us to keep what he called a \u201cCommonplace Book,\u201d \u00a0small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. \u00a0\u00a0When some extraordinary sound or sight or memory or piece of poetry catches our attention, we could stop right where we are, take out our battered little book, find words that want our attention\u00a0precisely<\/u> then and there.\u00a0 Thus, a commonplace moment can come alive in our imaginations with remembering, again and again.<\/p>\n

The \u201cWork Day in a Hard Time,\u201d now in the list\u2019s seventh year, comes from Fr. Waters\u2019 teachings when he taught me in my early twenties. \u00a0 I miss him still. \u00a0 Reading this Hopkins poem slowly, with pauses, reminds me of what I owe to his mentoring. \u00a0Let me tip my hat to Len and to a host of great teachers who have anointed generations of students here at Six Mile and Livernois.<\/p>\n

Have a blest week as we catch a hint of autumn.<\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spring and Fall<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/strong>By Gerard Manley Hopkins
\n\u00a0\u00a0 to a young child<\/em><\/p>\n

M\u00e1rgar\u00e9t, \u00e1re you gr\u00edeving
\nOver Goldengrove unleaving?
\nLe\u00e1ves like the things of man, you
\nWith your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
\nAh! \u00e1s the heart grows older
\nIt will come to such sights colder
\nBy and by, nor spare a sigh
\nThough worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
\nAnd yet you w\u00edll weep and know why.
\nNow no matter, child, the name:
\nS\u00f3rrow\u2019s spr\u00edngs \u00e1re the same.
\nNor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
\nWhat heart heard of, ghost guessed:
\nIt \u00eds the blight man was born for,
\nIt is Margaret you mourn for.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Near the Jesuit cemetery, Colombiere Center November 28, 2006<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, September 30 “It \u00eds the blight man was born for, It is Margaret you mourn for.\u201d This demanding Hopkins poem speaks of the power and beauty of ordinary human sadness. \u00a0Pretty much every work day in the year invites … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3645,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions\/3645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}