Ok time for a break...

Ok, it is time for a little break from my recent jag of "confessing church/ bonhoeffer" reflections. (After all, it is Earth Day and my buddy, Hal, is playing "Fresh Garbage" on his radio show after sharing Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell AND Quicksilver!) I recently found my way into two new volumes of poetry - one the new CD (I still instinctively want to say 'album' but...) by Natalie Merchant called "Leave Your Sleep" and the other The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz - and BOTH are treasures.

+ Merchant - who used to make me crazy (like a lot of wandering late 80s music did) - is on to something brilliant and engaging in this new work. Not only has she taken texts from a variety of poets - E.E. Cummings and Mother Goose to Gerald Manly Hopkins and Jack Prelusky - but she has also gathered a host of incredible musicians to help her explore an equally dazzling collection of musical styles to help her give shape and form to her ideas. And man does she do some creative explorations here...

+ And Kuntitz... Lord, is he powerful! In a LONG poem he calls "Journal for My Daughter" he writes:

Your turn. Grass of confusion.
You say you had a father once:
his name was absence.
He left, but did not let you go.
Part of him, more than a shadow,
beckoned down corridors,
secret, elusive, saturnine,
melting at your touch.
In the crack
of a divided house
grew the resentment-weed.
It has white inconspicuous flowers
Family of anthologists!
Collectors of injuries...

(He continues for 8 more short sub-sections - all of which speak of his love and memory of his beloved daughter - and concludes with this...)

The night when Coleridge,
heavy-hearted,
bore his crying child outside,
he noted
that those brimming eyes
caught the reflection
of the starry sky,
and each suspended tear
made a sparkling moon.

Tomorrow night my honey and I will join daughter and son-in-law over the mountain for two feasts: first we'll enjoy dinner together and then head out to see/listen to/experience the incomparable Wailin' Jennys (one of the clear proofs that God is real and grace-filled!) It will be one of those sacred/simple blessings that I find myself cherishing more and more as these days rush on. And as the weekend matures, I will cut some grass, join a new couple in church for the baptism of their little boy on Sunday and sing the Wailin' Jenny's tune "One Voice" during worship.

Two weeks from today, Dianne and I celebrate 15 years of being married: we're headed to our new anniversary get away - Providence, RI - for a few days of resting, wandering book stores and art museums and who knows what else. Providence is a fun little city that feels like a refuge for us - chamber music at Brown University, funky shops and a chance to be near the ocean (the East Coast equivalent to the BIG SKY of Arizona_ - and it is only 90 minutes away.
credits: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Confusion-150.png