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?

I'm Thankful
by Elena Stabile
Even the tinge of disappointment that colors much of life needn't deprive us of gratitude. As a wise young poet shows us, our losses have their own idiosyncratic humor. (PCC)

I Tell You
by Susan Glassmeyer
We all know how easy it is to forget our many blessings. This gentle poem draws our attention back to the beauty, dignity and grace of nature, of the human spirit, and of long, slow love. Its healing touch of gratefulness reminds us how our own flower vase so often overflows. (DB)

A Sleep of Prisoners
by Christopher Fry
“Between melting and freezing, the soul’s sap quivers,” writes T.S. Eliot. When you feel this quiver, think of it as the first sign of Spring – in your own heart and in the world at large. “The frozen misery of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move.” Shattering events. And yet, Christopher Fry exclaims: “Thank God our time is now when wrong comes up to face us everywhere,” because we can no longer ignore this season’s challenge to wake up. (PCC)

Dulce Et Decorum Est
by Wilfred Owen
Nearly a hundred years after Wilfred Owen wrote these lines, they still challenge us to make a difference. Never before in history have so many “children ardent for some desperate glory” been armed with such weapons of mass destruction. But never before have so many millions from every corner of the world shouted on the same day and as if with one voice: “Peace!” (Br. David)

The Guest House
by Jelalludin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
How can we deal gratefully with our own weaknesses? Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), one of the world's great poets and mystics, makes a radical recommendation: quit pushing away malice, shame, and depression, and treat them instead as honored guests. (PCC)

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