Poem: When This is Over

When this is over,
may we never again
take for granted
A handshake with a stranger
Full shelves at the store
Conversations with neighbors
A crowded theater
Friday night out
The taste of communion
A routine checkup
The school rush each morning
Coffee with a friend
The stadium roaring
Each deep breath
A boring Tuesday
Life itself.

When this ends
may we find
that we have become
more like the people
we wanted to be
we were called to be
we hoped to be
and may we stay
that way — better
for each other
because of the worst.

        Laura Kelly Fanucci

 

 

 

 

Poem: A Light exists in Spring

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.

       Emily Dickinson 

So true

I think women rule the world,
and that no man has ever done anything
that a woman either hasn't allowed him to do
or encouraged him to do.

       Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone, June 1984 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep going

Like most of the others,
I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent,
and at times a stupid hell-raiser.
I was never idle long enough to do much thinking,
but I felt somehow that my instincts were right.
I shared a vagrant optimism
that some of us were making real progress,
that we had taken an honest road,
and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top.
At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion
that the life we were leading was a lost cause,
that we were all actors,
kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey.
It was the tension between these two poles —
a restless idealism on one hand
and a sense of impending doom on the other —
that kept me going.

      Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary

 

 

 

 

 

The Rune of St. Patrick

At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

      Derived from The Lorica, translation by James Clarence Mangan

 

 

 

 

 

 

The right instructions

. . .you mustn’t wish for another life.
You mustn’t want to be somebody else.
What you must do is this:
"Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks."
I am not all the way capable of so much,
but those are the right instructions.

        Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter

 

 

 

 

 

The Ides of March

Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.

In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.

                Julius Ceasar, De Bello Gallico