Happy New Year, friends! Here’s a poem/prayer by George Herbert to start the year, either reverent or irreverent – you decide – Bitter-Sweet Ah my dear angry Lord Since those dost love, yet strike; Cast down, yet help afford; Sure…
Pepper and Poems
Today’s small treasure is a poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky that seemed resonant to me in these pandemic times. Samurai Song When I had no roof I made Audacity my roof. When I had No supper my…
What food are you loyal to? A strange question, yes. One posed by a poet. Award-winning poet Gerald Stern writes an ode to spaghetti in today’s selection from “Poems in Your Pocket”… Spaghetti by Gerald Stern Not infrequently destroyed as bits of paper of no…
Small treasures enchant us. They can tickle the fancy; delight the eyes; inspire awe, even. Most admirably, they can be tucked away. My sister’s Christmas gifts reminded me. My gift to you this week is an assortment of small wonders…
I fly through the house on my knee scooter! I perch on my cane. I sometimes miss the sofa life, which strangely brought with it a peaceable acceptance of my condition, along with whatever was brought on a tray. I…
For my Aunt Marie Green leaves cradle the fallen and finished – spent, diminished – (Nature cradles broken things) Lantana yellow small and white bloom wild, unburdened – fierce, unplanted – (Sown by Nature’s careful hand) Unplanned her hard shell cracks…
Do you ever let flowers die in the vase for the poignant beauty – and gorgeous horror – of their fade? Living the sofa life, I imagine myself in a 19th century novel… a woman who has taken to her bed, gazing at her…
In the middle of the night, toes burning, I find – awake, on the sofa – that life can be bathed in holy light, in darkness. The monks chant on my phone. I know what I am grateful for… *…
I hope you’ll find beauty and solace in these wildly different poems, as I have. They are each, in their way, about patience. But first, a tiny joke! My sweet friend sends me one each day as I’m living the…