Yesterday I posted a crowdsourced parody of the “12 Days of Christmas” song entitled “The 12 Woes of the Quarter” to the History Compass blog. It addresses some specific grievances from those of us grad students who’re struggling through the UC financial crisis. You might want to take a look. 🙂
Last night I attended an event that showcased various forms of e-literature , including much e-poetry. I was particularly taken by the work of David Jhave Johnston, and encourage you to spend some time perusing the work on his site and watching the piece below…(yes, I know it’s all wonky in the sizing, but hopefully it’ll all work anyways).
And then, as I walked home all full of poetry (and mango sticky rice–yum!) late last night, I became enchanted by the shadows cast by my own legs as I passed under streetlights. I was wearing a shortish a-line skirt that seemed to complement the asymmetrical shapes of my left and right legs. As the legs stretched out in the shadows, they looked rather like doll-legs. It was so strange to see them and feel as though they were a piece of art that was not connected to me. With my cameraphone I snapped one blurry picture , to share when I was feeling in that moment…
This entry was posted in mary monday , songs/poetry on December 15, 2009 by janaremy@gmail.com .
I would like to write a poem about the world that has
So this morning I had another moment where I had that same sort of feeling, where I had to surrender the outcome of the situation to the universe. And hoping that if worse came to worse, I could probably find some kindly soul to lend a hand.
I feel like that’s an important lesson for me to learn–that I can’t always control the variables of my life, nor should I always try to do so. I just need to make my best effort and then let life happen without fretting too much about the worst-case-scenario.
What lessons has your life taught you lately?
I feel so fortunate to have such beauty around me…and so many opportunities to enjoy it.
From Mary Oliver, “How Would You Live Then?”
…What if you saw
I apologize for not getting a Mary Monday post up yesterday, but deadlines are looming. So in the meantime let me urge you to watch this video and echo this prayer for the tender ones in your life. Or even for yourself, because we are all Blueberry Girls.
And (swoon), what a sublime voice Neil Gaiman has….
Do you have any similar photo folders or things you do to cheer yourself?
It’s not often that we get a chance to be apart from the world for awhile, in such a beautiful place. Cape Cod will always be dear to me now, as the landscape that held me when I was aching, that taught me to feel strong in the midst of fear and change.
Today’s passage isn’t from Mary Oliver, but from another woman who knew the gifts from the sea , Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Her insights gained during her time on the “island” are resonating with me today as I think back to my time on Cape Cod.
She writes:
“Moon shell, who named you? Some intuitive woman I like to think. I shall give you another name–Island shell. I cannot live forever on my island. But I can take you back to my desk in Connecticut [or in Irvine]. You will sit there and fasten your single eye upon me. You will make me think, with your smooth circles winding inward to the tiny core, of the island I lived on for a few weeks. You will say to me “solitude.” You will remind me that I must try to be alone for part of each year, even a week or a few days, and for part of each day, even for an hour or a few minutes in order to keep my core, my center, my island-quality. You will remind me that unless I keep the island-quality intact somewhere within me, I will have little to give my husband, my children, my friends, or the world at large. You will remind me that woman must be still as the axis of a wheel in the midst of her activities, that she must be the pioneer in achieving this stillness, not only for her own salvation, but for the salvation of family life, of society, perhaps even of our civilization.”
The need for solitude and stillness is not just essential for women and mothers, but for everyone so they can find center. Where do you go when you need to be alone for awhile?
Originally published on 11/24/08:
Where there is greed,
What colors are you enjoying today?
This weekend I found myself immersed in something of the fantasy life that I dream of: staying in an oceanfront room, spending the long hours of the evening chatting with old & new friends over a multi-course meal, wandering up and down the wet sand in the dark as I mulled over the concerns of the world, falling asleep to the insistent rhythm of the waves. And not to mention a victorious morning paddle out on the open ocean in a tandem outrigger canoe (it was a race, our first in a 2-man boat!).
And of course, I have a wee morsel of Mary Oliver poetry for you today, this is an excerpt from “Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith.” These lines reminded me of the fear I had to face down on Saturday morning as my paddling partner and I realized that we’d have to do a surf entry for the boat in some rather rough waves. We came ever-so-close to not going through with it…
And therefore, let the immeasurable come.
swing through the air.
One morning
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