{"id":942,"date":"2014-11-21T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T05:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=942"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:50:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:50:02","slug":"942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/11\/21\/942\/","title":{"rendered":"Nov 21 “Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday November 21 “What disturbs and then nourishes has everything\u2028 we need.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

These blast days of wind and cold can wear even on a winter-lover like me. And when I hear, early today on NPR, that Buffalo’s 6+ feet of snow may be followed over the weekend with high temperatures and flooding, I catch my breath. And when I learn from a soul friend that a lovely little soccer-playing 3rd grader in our school on Pine Ridge, Jayla, was killed while sledding, apparently by a pack of wild dogs, grief makes its home in me. Again.<\/p>\n

I wanted a poem about winter today as our work week ends. And found one that David Whyte wrote and published in his book of poems, The House of Belonging<\/span>. Great poetry can steady us, open places of stillness in us, encourage us. “The Winter of Listening” reminds me of a nourishing one-liner written decades ago by the mystic Thomas Merton: “There is no way of telling strangers they are all walking around shining like the sun.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Best to read a poem out loud, with some pauses. Have a blest weekend.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today’s Post “The Winter of Listening”<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one but me by the fire,
\nmy hands burning
\nred in the palms while
\nthe night wind carries
\neverything away outside.<\/p>\n

All this petty worry
\nwhile the great cloak
\nof the sky grows dark
\nand intense
\nround every living thing.<\/p>\n

What is precious
\ninside us does not
\ncare to be known
\nby the mind
\nin ways that diminish
\nits presence.<\/p>\n

What we strive for
\nin perfection
\nis not what turns us
\ninto the lit angel
\nwe desire,<\/p>\n

what disturbs
\nand then nourishes
\nhas everything
\nwe need.<\/p>\n

What we hate
\nin ourselves
\nis what we cannot know
\nin ourselves but
\nwhat is true to the pattern
\ndoes not need
\nto be explained.<\/p>\n

Inside everyone
\nis a great shout of joy
\nwaiting to be born.<\/p>\n

Even with the summer
\nso far off
\nI feel it grown in me
\nnow and ready
\nto arrive in the world.<\/p>\n

All those years
\nlistening to those
\nwho had\u2028 nothing to say.<\/p>\n

All those years
\nforgetting
\nhow everything
\nhas its own voice
\nto make
\nitself heard.<\/p>\n

All those years
\nforgetting
\nhow easily
\nyou can belong
\nto everything
\nsimply by listening.<\/p>\n

And the slow
\ndifficulty
\nof remembering
\nhow everything
\nis born from
\nan opposite
\nand miraculous
\notherness.<\/p>\n

Silence and winter
\nhas led me to that
\notherness.<\/p>\n

So let this winter
\nof listening
\nbe enough
\nfor the new life
\nI must call my own.<\/p>\n

David Whyte<\/p>\n

\"David-Whyte\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday November 21 “What disturbs and then nourishes has everything\u2028 we need.” These blast days of wind and cold can wear even on a winter-lover like me. And when I hear, early today on NPR, that Buffalo’s 6+ feet of … 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\/942"}],"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=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":947,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions\/947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}