Annual composting of the annuals

fall drifts to winter

her melancholy mood swings

reluctant lament

Equinox, Rosh Hashanah and a beloved's birthday

God let there be awareness
where ignorance now prevails.

Scatter our long hidden fears
with your bright beam of courage.

And knit fine cloaks of your love
to shelter us and the world.

                   

by Debbie Aliya

from  Prayers for Healing, 365 Blessings, Poems, and Meditations edited by Maggie Oman. 

Keeping the Sabbath

Why is it that when I am sitting in nature I am flooded with the feelings I long for when I'm sitting in church?

Emily Dickinson
Keeping the Sabbath

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –

I keep it, staying at Home –

With a Bobolink for a Chorister –

And an Orchard, for a Dome –

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –

I, just wear my Wings –

And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,

Our little Sexton – sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –

And the sermon is never long,

So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –

I’m going, all along.

Sometimes we lift a candle...

Yesterday was our memorial day here at Centering Porch. It had to be - we knew we had to work at the co-op today. I was in the garden for twelve hours yesterday, interrupted myself for getting laundry on the line and a grazer’s lunch. Hallelujah-A zero ignition day. No motors, just bird songs. I was conjuring soldiers, and refugees, and people who don’t get to garden this year. It’s work to be sure. Spelled l.o.v.e. At evening’s light there’s affirmation amid the wonder.

“…sometimes we lift a candle, sometimes we curse…”  is from A Dream of the Future by Joyce Sutphen. [writer'salmanac.org for today, Monday, May 29, 2017.] This Memorial Day we lift a candle, honored to be an affiliate site for Quiet Garden Trust International. Come away and be. Leave your frenzy at the gate.

 

Happy Birthday, Vincent

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

Vernal Equinox

Tentatively spring
Like alien brain tissue
Rhubarb emerging

What crisis?

Approaching 60 degrees on the west porch for Sunday mugs of tea at 4 PM in late February. FEBRUARY! A lovely interlude but clearly something is wrong. The ice is completely out of the farm lake which is unheard of; four inches of snow two days ago also gone. And disavowing that something is wrong was our new President's first official act. I thought then I had identified a cause to strap on a shield for. But then the refugees, beloved brethren of the very same planet. Now the press. What crisis next? And which one will ignite my most fiery passion? [It's strategic scattering, neh?]

Solidarity

It is no miracle our mood is high.
Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs

These two lines are from Robert Frost’s poem Dedication. He wrote it for the inauguration of John F Kennedy. The glare of bright sunlight on that winter day and Frost’s failing eyesight (I believe he was 87 at the time) prevented him from reading it aloud. He recited another of his poems from memory. 

Yesterday Donald Trump was inaugurated and I was attached to the radio listening for high mood and courage in the air. I was disappointed. Last night I even ventured into television viewing, a rare activity for me, to check again. I heard a pundit say, “If you wanted poetry there was another candidate for you.”

So today we walk,
Bracing courage in the fog.
Mindfulness.  Kindness.