and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

e e cummings

Last night I noticed the rumours floating around the internet that Maya Angelou was hospitalized, and then that she’d passed on.  Thankfully, those rumours were erroneous.  I’m sorry to say that I don’t know her work very well, but I’d make a point of reading a little and posting something today for a poem of the week.  I’m overdue in that department, anyhow.

I found this one under the title “The Rock Cries Out to Us Today” and liked bits of it.  After a little digging I learned that this was written for Clinton’s inauguration.  It’s a little long, but I think it’s worth the read.  As I said, I haven’t read much of her poetry — if you have, please let me know your favorites!

On The Pulse Of Morning

Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Mark the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no hiding place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spelling words
Armed for slaughter.
The rock cries out today, you may stand on me,
But do not hide your face.
Across the wall of the world,
A river sings a beautiful song,
Come rest here by my side.
Each of you a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more.
Come, clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I
And the tree and stone were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your brow
And when you yet knew you still knew nothing.
The river sings and sings on.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing river and the wise rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew,
The African and Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek,
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the tree.
Today, the first and last of every tree
Speaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the river.
Plant yourself beside me, here beside the river.
Each of you, descendant of some passed on
Traveller, has been paid for.
You, who gave me my first name,
You Pawnee, Apache and Seneca,
You Cherokee Nation, who rested with me,
Then forced on bloody feet,
Left me to the employment of other seekers–
Desperate for gain, starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot…
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru,
Bought, sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the tree planted by the river,
Which will not be moved.
I, the rock, I the river, I the tree
I am yours–your passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage,
Need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts.
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me,
The rock, the river, the tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes,
Into your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.

—

pity this busy monster, manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
— electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born — pity poor flesh

and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if — listen: there’s a hell
of a good universe next door; let’s go

– e. e. cummings

Spring Morning

by A. A. Milne

Where am I going? I don’t quite know.
Down to the streams where the king-cups grow -
Up to the hill where the pine-trees blow -
Anywhere, anywhere, I don’t know

Where am I going? The clouds sail by,
Little ones, baby ones, over the sky.
Where am I going? The shadows pass,
Little ones, baby ones, over the grass

If you were a cloud, and sailed up there,
You’d sail on the water as blue as air,
And you’d see me here in the fields and say:
“Doesn’t the sky look green today?

Where am I going, The high rooks call:
“It’s awful fun to be born at all,”
Where am I going? The ring-doves coo:
“We do have beautiful things to do.”

If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You’d lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You’d say to the wind when it took you away:
“That’s where I wanted to go today!”

Where am I going? I don’t quite know.
What does it matter where people go?
Down to the wood where the blue-bells grow -
Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know.

Look! Bees!

“Two weeks or so” turned into only nine days at Cornerstone Farm, but it sure was good to spend time outdoors, away from constant noise, away from all the things that I distract myself with.

I went to work on being ready for the school year to start. I guess I got about a quarter of the way ready.  I also read, a lot.  I even wrote a little bit.  I even wrote a few letters, which is rare for me.  I always wish I wrote more letters, but I wind up talking myself dry.  I’ve long admired the rural life, but thought that I was too extroverted to really survive it.  I now think that if I lived away from city and community, writing would become normal instead of something I wish I did more.

Sometime later, I’ll type out a little of what I wrote that week if I still like it.  In the meanwhile, here’s a list I scribbled near the end of my trip of some books that I spent time with.

• Selected Writings of Dorothy Day.
• The Irrational Season – Madeleine L’Engle.
• Nomadic Furniture 2.
• Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006.
• We Wanted a Farm – M. G. Kains.
• City of Names – Kevin Brockmeier.
• The Meaning of the City – Jacques Ellul.
• Building a Straw Bale House: The Red Feather Construction Handbook.
• The Forager’s Harvest – Samuel Thayer.
• The Way of Ignorance – Wendell Berry.
• Forest Gardening – Robert Hart.
• Grooves: A Kind of Mystery – Kevin Brockmeier.
• A Different Kind of Teacher – John Taylor Gatto.
• Metropolis (an architecture and design journal) June ’07 and Feb ’07.
• The Continuum Concept – Jean Liedloff.
• Whitefoot – Wendell Berry.
• The Human Cycle – Colin Turnbull.
• Trees of Illinois – Stan Tekiela.
• I Peter – Peter.