Tag: Poetry

  • Fire-Flowers by Emily Pauline Johnson

    Fire-FlowersAnd only where the forest fires have sped,    Scorching relentlessly the cool north lands, A sweet wild flower lifts its purple head,  And, like some gentle spirit sorrow-fed,   It hides the scars with almost human hands. And only to the heart that knows of grief,  Of desolating fire, of human pain, There comes some purifying sweet belief,  Some fellow-feeling beautiful, if brief.   And life…

  • Hurry by Marie Howe

    We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery storeand the gas station and the green market andHurry up honey, I say, hurry hurry,as she runs along two or three steps behind meher blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?To mine? Where one day…

  • A Ritual to Read to Each Other by William E. Stafford

    I love William Stafford‘s poetry. I came across him when we were still living in the Pacific Northwest where he is from. The first poem of his I heard from Parker Palmer when I participated in a renewal retreat with him years ago. It’s a poem I have used in countless writings and presentations: The…

  • Love as A Model For Change

    Before Covid19, and certainly even more now, the systems that were meant to take care of us, protect our most vulnerable, and be focused on the best interest of the people rather than for those in power have all failed and can no longer be trusted or relied upon. We are at the precipice of…

  • A Spiritual Journey by Wendell Berry

    A Spiritual Journey And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,  no matter how long,  but only by a spiritual journey,  a journey of one inch,  very arduous and humbling and joyful,  by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,  and learn to be at home. ~ Wendell Berry ~