From 20th century Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz–passed along by Whidbey Island’s indefatigable Clancy Dunigan who wrote “and then there is this poster by the light switch in my out building:”
Category: Art as Resistance
For a Time of Sorrow
By Howard Thurman
I share with you the agony of your grief,
The anguish of your heart finds echo in my own.
I know I cannot enter all you feel
Nor bear with you the burden of your pain;
I can but offer what my love does give:
The strength of caring,
The warmth of one who seeks to understand
The silent storm-swept barrenness of so great a loss.
This I do in quiet ways,
That on your lonely path
You may not walk alone.
Ursula: ¡Presente!
The prophetic and passionate Ursula Le Guin (October 21, 1929 to January 23, 2018), excerpted from her 2014 speech at The National Book Awards:
Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom – poets, visionaries – realists of a larger reality.
Right now, we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximise corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship. Continue reading “Ursula: ¡Presente!”
Less
From Nayyirah Waheed in Salt (2013):
i want more ‘men’
with flowers falling from their skin.
more water in their eyes.
more tremble in their bodies.
more women in their hearts
than
on their hands.
more softness in their height.
more honesty in their voice.
more wonder.
more humility in their feet.
What I Would Do and Say the Next Time
From Sherman Alexie, “On The Amtrak From Boston to New York City:”
The white woman across the aisle from me says ‘Look,
look at all the history, that house
on the hill there is over two hundred years old, ‘
as she points out the window past me
into what she has been taught. I have learned
little more about American history during my few days
back East than what I expected and far less
of what we should all know of the tribal stories Continue reading “What I Would Do and Say the Next Time”
Lead Us Home By Another Way
By Lindsay Airey
Spirit who animates All Things,
help us to listen now.
May we abandon our many pursuits
keeping us ever-busy and never listening
to your gentle,
fierce proddings.
Guide us in the way(s) of life.
Help us release:
our addictions,
superiorities,
certainties,
white-knuckling, fear-suppressing
blame,
shame
and deep-seeded
hatreds.
May we find something more reliable
to keep us warm
these
long
winter nights. Continue reading “Lead Us Home By Another Way”
Gate A-4
By Naomi Shihab Nye in Honeybee
Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning
my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:
“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please
come to the gate immediately.”
Well—one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just
like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. “Help,”
said the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We
told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.” Continue reading “Gate A-4”
Benevolent Powers
By Dietrich Bonhoeffer, imprisoned Christmastime 1944
Faithfully and quietly surrounded by benevolent powers,
wonderfully guarded and consoled,
–thus will I live this day with you
and go forth with you into another year.
Still will the past torment our hearts
Still, heavy burdens of bad times depress us,
Ah, Lord, give our startled souls
the grace for which we were created. Continue reading “Benevolent Powers”
Giving Thanks 2017
By Ric Hudgens
Walking round my neighborhood
this autumn morning
I recognized a hundred homes
in my sight and on my mind
where if I knocked on the door
there would be welcome and a meal
shared from the heart of their hospitality. Continue reading “Giving Thanks 2017”
