|

Another Dance

Bynhcarmichael

“Don’t call this world adorable, or useful, that’s not it.
It’s frisky, and a theater for more than fair winds.”
Mary Oliver, Where Does the Dance Begin, Where Does It End?

When the world show you more than fair winds (this week surely did that), a sprinkling of Mary Oliver poetry soothes the soul. Don’t think I don’t recognize the tendency to turn this blog into a Mary Oliver fan page, and really I’ve tried to move to other things, but too often Oliver seems to have the words readily available. Funny how a few words piled together just so seems to center you. To harden your resolve to get through the darkest days with an eye towards the light.

“Doesn’t the wind, turning in circles, invent the dance?”

I don’t suppose the angry mob has time for poetry. It’s clear they aren’t dancing joyfully through life either. Spun up in conspiracy and hate, and believing false gods. They can’t see beauty when they’re blind with rage.

But we can. So long as we continue to look for it. Hate burns out when it runs out of fuel.

Similar Posts

| | |

Returning to November Stillness

Bynhcarmichael

Walking along the edge of the woods through a thick blanket of fallen leaves, I noted the changes in the landscape since I was last home. New Hampshire is well past peak now, and recent wind and heavy rain coaxed some holdouts down in my absence. The hardscape is glaringly obvious now. November in New…

| |

The River As Time

Bynhcarmichael

“The river is everywhere at once, at the source and the mouth, at the waterfall, the ferry, the rapids, the sea, and the mountains. It is everywhere at once, and there only the present exists for it—not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future… Nothing was and nothing will be: everything…

| | | | |

Trust Our Heaviness

Bynhcarmichael

How surely gravity’s law,strong as an ocean current,takes hold of the smallest thingand pulls it toward the heart of the world. Each thing—each stone, blossom, child —is held in place.Only we, in our arrogance,push out beyond what we each belong tofor some empty freedom. If we surrenderedto earth’s intelligencewe could rise up rooted, like trees….

| | |

Finding the Boldly Creative Work Inside of Us

Bynhcarmichael

“Some arrogance is essential to the creative process. The very idea that your private thoughts or feelings are worth sharing with anyone outside your family or friends is already a kind of arrogance. Arrogance is the exit and entry point to the humiliation that art requires. Not unrelated is a dubious courage that when you…

Leave a Reply