dearest local or not-so-local hip tranquil chicks, please save the date for a tres hip and tranquil new year year extravaganza (yes, i'm a planner) on saturday, january 12 in the grand ballroom of the josephine butler house (featured in this photo). this kick-start to 2008 will be held from 10-4 and include yoga, creative play, do-gooding discussions, and more. oh, and did i mention the ballroom has 2 fireplaces? and we'll have oodles of yummy tea for you to sip the entire day. i can't wait! stay tuned for more scoop.in addition, i have a request. any poetry lovers (or writers) out there? i'm looking for some inspiring poetry to share on the blog and in my classes. and, as a novice who is constantly like "i don't get it" when i read most poetry, i'd love suggestions that cross into my non-connoisseur realm. in the spirit, i want to share one of my favorites:
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
7 comments:
SHARON OLDS! SHARON OLDS! SHARON OLDS!
Greatest poet EVER!!! She is totally awesome and completely rocks and her poetry is readable and wonderful and amazing.
PLEASE CHECK OUT SHARON OLDS!!!!!!! You won't be sorry!!!
You might enjoy the series of anthologies by Roger Housden. I have "Ten Poems to Open Your Heart" and "Ten Poems to set You Free."
Mary Oliver is featured in both, I think. He presents the poem and a nice analysis for each, so you might find some help in understanding the poems directly there.
The themes seem appropriate for yoga or meditation classes as well!
Mary Oliver is my favorite poet.
Another poet and author who writes about our connection to the world around us is Byrd Baylor. She writes lots of children's books which are insightful and simply beautiful.
I reccomend:
The Table Where Rich People Sit
Other Way to Listen
I'm In Charge of Celebrations
Maya Angelou. I was lucky enough to hear her speak in June. A truly amazing woman...witty, graceful, and brilliant. It made me dig through my books to read her work all over again. I'd read most of her work while I was in college. I have a new appreciation for them as an "adult".
What a beautiful poem. I am also one of those who will enjoy the occasional poem, but feel totally lost in that world and in complete awe of those who can create such beauty with words. That new year's bash sounds incredible and I can't wait for more scoop.
This poem has been deeply meaningful to me ever since I first heard it, during a Bill Moyers broadcast on PBS on 9/12/01.
Waltzing the Spheres
By Susan Scott Thompson
We pulled each other closer in the turn.
Around a center that we could not see.
This holding on was what I had to learn.
The sun can hold the planets, earth, the moon.
But we had to create our gravity.
By always pulling closer in the turn.
Each revolution caused my head to whirl.
So dizzy I wanted to break free.
But holding on was what I had to learn.
I fixed my eyes on something out there firm.
And then our orbit steadied so that we could pull each other closer in the turn.
And if our feet should briefly leave the earth, no matter, earth was made for us to leave.
And arms for pulling closer in the turn.
This holding on is what we have to learn.
...I also love The Blue Guitar by Wallace Stevens, Our Story by Ann Waldman, so much by Robert Frost (my mom read to me from Swinger of Birches as a child)... and much by Allen Ginsberg. This quote of his seems appropriate: "I write poetry because I suffer confusion not knowing what other people think."
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