Monthly Archives: May 2024

I pray against myself.

prayer, quotes, ,

A PRAYER

Lord, I know that even my asking for spiritual enlightenment
is mostly a lie, as my motivations are so mixed….

Nevertheless, hear my words, O Lord,
divorced from all the falseness with which I say them.

And Lord, I am not closing my eyes as I pray this,
nor scrunching up my face and emotions with spirituality,

as if on my own I could change myself, or as if,
having made this awesome scrunchy-faced effort,
it won’t be my fault when you don’t answer this prayer
for my renewal.

Rather, I am genuinely accepting that I don’t know
what precisely would have to change in me
for me to love you more.

This unknown change, which you do know,
is what I pray for: I pray against myself. Amen.

—Timothy Patitsas

Of scent and song the daughter.

beauty, poetry, trees, ,

THE MAGNOLIA

Deep in the wood, of scent and song the daughter,
Perfect and bright is the magnolia born;
White as a flake of foam upon still water,
White as soft fleece upon rough brambles torn.
Hers is a cup a workman might have fashioned
Of Grecian marble in an age remote.
Hers is a beauty perfect and impassioned,
As when a woman bares her rounded throat.
There is a tale of how the moon, her lover,
Holds her enchanted by some magic spell;
Something about a dove that broods above her,
Or dies within her breast—I cannot tell.
I cannot say where I have heard the story,
Upon what poet’s lips; but this I know:
Her heart is like a pearl’s, or like the glory
Of moonbeams frozen on the spotless snow.

-José Santos Chocano  (1875 – 1934) Peru
Translated by John Pierrepont Rice

Magnolia, by Cuno Amiet

 

You and I, we do not shrink.

humor, poetry, weather,

When I was in the Midwest recently I enjoyed watching through big windows the rainstorms with lightning and thunder. I don’t understand this poem’s title — can anyone explain it to me?  I did find the whole thing fun to read. But then, I’ve never experienced a hurricane.

A WATCHED EXAMPLE NEVER BOILS

The weather is so very mild
That some would call it warm.
Good gracious, aren’t we lucky, child?
Here comes a thunderstorm.

The sky is now indelible ink,
The branches reft asunder;
But you and I, we do not shrink;
We love the lovely thunder.

The garden is a raging sea,
The hurricane is snarling;
Oh happy you and happy me!
Isn’t the lightning darling?

Fear not the thunder, little one.
It’s weather, simply weather;
It’s friendly giants full of fun
Clapping their hands together.

I hope of lightning our supply
Will never be exhausted;
You know it’s lanterns in the sky
For angels who are losted.

We love the kindly wind and hail,
The jolly thunderbolt,
We watch in glee the fairy trail
Of ampere, watt, and volt.

Oh, than to enjoy a storm like this
There’s nothing I would rather.
Don’t dive beneath the blankets, Miss!
Or else leave room for Father.

-Ogden Nash