Poetry Page

By cutting to the truth of our experience, poetry shakes us and awakens us. Through it we open our eyes to what Robert Frost called “the pleasure of taking pains.” And what is gratitude besides this playful engagement with life as it unfolds in all its challenges and delights?

Second Halloween
by Joyce Holmes McAllister
"Second Halloween" might give you the chills – the good kind! – with its cognizance of the thin veil between realms and its solid recognition (on the *second* anniversary) that all is not lost.

Gratefulness
by Dale Biron
Ever feel like your gratefulness engine is sputtering?  What keeps this old jalopy going is a mystery.

Watching the Birdwatcher
by Richard Schiffman
This study in perspective captures the space between moments by the reverse feat of not trying to grasp it.  Then it chides its own inherent contradiction!  What cannot be seen – the bird – comes through as the strongest presence in the poem.

Depression Days
by Joyce Holmes McAllister
In tough times, our ancestors' voices – and the memory of their actions, speaking louder than words – offer us wisdom.

The Call
by George Herbert
This prayer-in-poetry, set to music by Vaughn Williams, calls to us all that is lasting, healing, and worthwhile.  Isn't a love that "none can part" what we long for most?  How rare to be given the words to articulate it and the strength to come into the Presence that makes it possible. (PCC)
Remembering the poem's 1633 publication, please alter the pronoun if needed so that it follows your own heart's language.

Tea
by Amy Uyematsu
What appears as simple grace is exactly that which demands the greatest labor of love, as Amy Uyematsu's poem – and the life of peacemaker Thich Nhat Hanh, whom it honors – shows.
(PCC)

Desire Change (Sonnets to Orpheus Part II, #12, stanza 1)
by Rainer Maria Rilke, transl. by Br. David Steindl-Rast
Let change be your guiding star.  We ought to love the turning point.  Whenever you want to complain, remind yourself, “I’m at a turning point.  What is it turning to now?”  And be enthusiastic for it. (Br. David)
See also: "Letting change guide you" (video) and
Die Sonette an Orpheus (all of part II, #12, in German).

Infinity and God
by Richard Jones
A five year old's grateful wonder can carry us all the way up to infinity and back down to the simplest feather, drawing our attention to the divine presence that permeates our world. (PCC)

Jitterbug
by Joyce Holmes McAllister
Although we may think of them as impediments, life's contradictions are often exactly what save us, allowing us to fly beyond limitations.  In this poem, Joyce Holmes McAllister plays contrasts off each other:  brittleness and speed, refusal and abandon, limping and flight. Through it all, she both defies the body's slowing process and affirms the prowess of age.  (PCC)

The Priest Writes His Desire
by Jessie Dolch
"I would like it noted," writes J. Dolch in a message to Br. David, "that the poem is really Fr. Hand's, as so much of it came from and was inspired by a letter he shared with his friends and which Ruben Habito posted at the Maria Kannon Zen Center. I merely imagined the scene of its writing." That is one powerful "merely," in our opinion.

The Spoon
by Richard Jones
This poem draws you into the realm of imagining all you can do with the simplest of objects, a spoon:  everything from taking your medicine to digging a tunnel to freedom.  Could it be that creative imagination plays a substantial role in being grateful?  (PCC)

Luminous Jealousy
by Patricia Campbell Carlson
What on earth (so to speak) is the moon up to on the day after an eclipse, and why is she taking all the credit?  This poem sheds a little light on jealousy, which is perhaps sometimes warranted.  (PCC)

Presence
by Katherine Lansing Davis
"When there are no words, how can there be a poem?" wrote Katherine Davis to our longtime friend Terry Pearce after the unexpected death of his vibrant and beautiful daughter Jodi Wilson Ehrlicher at age 31.  Married to Jason Ehrlicher and mother of two young children, Jodi will be remembered by everyone for her smile, sense of humor, and zest for life.  We are grateful to Katherine for finding words when we all know none can suffice.  We have only our hearts, captured in poetry, to offer. (PCC)

Lösch mir die Augen aus
by Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Br. David Steindl-Rast
Every now and then we let ourselves imagine the worst that could happen to us: How could we survive?  This testimony of dedication and trust attests to an enduring relationship that goes beyond our vision, our hearing, our speech, our mobility, and even our ability to think...a relationship which cannot be extinguished. In the sureness of this relationship – and our ability to surrender to it – lies consolation beyond measure. 
(PCC)
Read Rilke's original in German.

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Poetry Editors: Patricia C. Carlson (PCC), Dale Biron (DB), Brother David Steindl-Rast (Br. David)