Posted in Creative Nonfiction on 31 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Sunday morning
For me, it isn’t who shows up in my life but what untimely dream I wander into.
Jody Gladding
This morning we began with registration and went into faculty interviews, a lecture and a workshop. My workshops this week will be with Robin Behn and Roger Weingarten. We are each assigned into a group [...]
Posted in Creative Nonfiction on 29 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
There was the spirit of honest inquiry, the spirit of hospitality, to new light and truth from any quarter, the spirit of understanding which sees all life as one and that every truth must live at peace with every other. (motto, Vermont College)
It occurred to me on the shuttle ride from the airport last [...]
Posted in Poem of the day on 27 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Posted in Poem of the day on 26 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Someone sent me a comment today asking what my top 10 favorite poems are. As we approach the end of the year, it seemed like a good idea to do a final round up.
Of late ….
1. Love at First Sight by Wislawa Szymborska (Dec. 14);
2. Gradually It Occurs to Us by Marvin Bell (Nov 11 [...]
Posted in Poem of the day on 25 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Brigit Kelly is one of the poets I will be working with in Vermont next week. When I saw her name, I had to laugh. I have a long history with the name Brigit. It is a kind of nickname the nuns have given me.
Brigit (or Brigid, 451-525) was an Irish saint who lived in [...]
Posted in Poem of the day on 25 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
For everything there is a season. And there is a time for every event under heaven —
A time to give birth, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted.
Posted in Creative Nonfiction on 25 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
When I was a little girl, I was an Idgy. How I grew up to be a Ruth I’ll never know. I suppose it’s a result of good Southern training. That movie seemed to call to me today, and once again I became engrossed in the story of the bee charmer from Alabama.
In Tennessee where [...]
Posted in Poem of the day on 24 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I Am Offering This Poem
I am offering this poem to you,
since I have nothing else to give.
Keep it like a warm coat,
when winter comes to cover you,
or like a pair of thick socks
the cold cannot bite through,
Posted in Creative Nonfiction on 23 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Thus by means of discretion . . . he is to regulate everything so that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak are not frightened away. RB 64
Many people wonder why I do volunteer work at a monastery. I’m not a nun. I don’t have the same inclinations. They spend seven [...]
Posted in Poem of the day on 20 December 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Love is that condition
in the human spirit
so profound
that it allows
one to survive
and, better than that,
to thrive
with passion,
compassion
and style.
Maya Angelou (born 1928 )
Someone gave this poem to me once. We were trying to define love. I told her what struck me in the poem was the word thrive. We use it most often when we are [...]
