{Excerpts}

{not my fireplace}

It's just the kind of morning to curl up on the couch, stare at the fireplace, sip some tea and ponder some poetry.

I visited Fayetteville last week-- always a good time :) As Dad finished packing up for their weekend trip to Branson, I looked through She Walks in Beauty-- a poetry anthology edited by Caroline Kennedy to the theme of a woman's journey through life.

Poetry isn't something I usually put myself through read. I mean, I'm a life ponderer and all (hence, the blog) but poems just seem too... grown up? But the cover looked just like my mom, who has grown up around the same age as Caroline Kennedy, so I took the plunge and bought it for mothers day. She kindly displayed the book on an end table in our living room, so as I crunched on cereal, quite on autopilot, it's colors caught my eye once more. I was sort of in a trance as I skimmed line after line, as I'd gotten approximately 3 hours of sleep the night before. Sipping black tea at 1 a.m. has consequences, it turns out.

Later that day, I scribbled down a few of those lines that jumped off the page.

I felt like maybe they deserved a better home than the horrific resting place that is the bottom of my purse.

{From A Minor Bird, by Robert Frost}

The fault must partly have been in me.

The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong

in wanting to silence any song.

{From The Bacchae Chorus, by Euripedes}

In various ways, one man outraces another in the race for wealth and power. Ten thousand men have ten thousand hopes. A few bear fruit in happiness, the others go awry. But he who garners day by day the good of life, he is happiest. Blessed is he.

{From Going Blind, by Rainer Maria Rilke}

Her lighted eyes, which spoke of gladness, glistened with outward luster, as a pond is lit.

She followed slowly and it took much trying as though some obstacle still barred her stride.

And yet as if she on the farther side might

not be walking anymore but flying.

{From To Be of Use, by Marge Piercy}

I want to be with people who submerge

in the task, who go into the fields to harvest

and work in a row and pass bags along,

who are not parlor generals and field deserters,

but move in common rhythm

when the food must come in and the fire be put out.

...

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

...

The pitcher cries for water to carry

and a person for work that is real.

{From Girlfriends, by Ellen Dore Watson}

I mean the ones who say the unwelcome

when it matters.

...

The lifers

who, even seven states away

are the porches

where we land.

{From Write It On Your Heart by Ralph Waldo Emerson}

Tomorrow is a new day,

begin it well and serenely

and with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your

old nonsense.

{From Leisure, by WH Davis}

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

...

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

we have no time to stand and stare.

{From The Waking, by Theodore Roethke}

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.

What falls away is always. And is near.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I learn by going where I have to go.

{From Leap Before You Look, by WH Auden}

The sense of danger must not disappear:

The way is certainly both short and steep,

However gradual it looks from here;

Look if you like, but you will have to leap.

...

Although I love you, you will have to leap;

Our dream of safety has to disappear.

{From PS Education, by Ellen Hagan}

Tell him, teach him to say, "I will look at you Rachael and I will see you" 1,000 times over.

Rachael, where Trinidad and Guyana meet. Tell her the truth, that you never knew where she was from until you asked, and when you finally asked, it was way later than you wanted.

{From She Walks in Beauty, by Caroline Kennedy} (alignment edited)

Sometimes we struggle

Sometimes we adapt

and at other times, we set a course for others to follow.

We are all leaders and followers in our own lives.

We are constantly learning from and teaching one another.

We learn, too, that the most important work

is not done by those who seem most important,

but by those who care the most.

...

Most of all I would like to thank my friends and family

who make me happy to get up every morning,

knowing I might get to talk to them that day.