Friday, October 8, 2010

The Poet Comments on Yet Another Approaching Spring


Don’t flowers put on their

Prettiness each spring and

Go to it with

Everything they’ve got? Who

Would criticize the bed of

Yellow tulips or the blue

Hyacinths?

So put a

Bracelet on your

Ankle with a

Bell on it and make a

Little music for

The earth beneath your foot, or

Wear a hat with hot-colored

Ribbons for the

Pleasure of the

Leaves and the clouds, or at least

A ring with a gleaming

Stone for your finger; yesterday

I watched a mother choose

Exquisite ear-ornaments for someone

Beloved, in the spring

Of her life; they were

For her for sure, but also it seemed

A promise, a love message, a commitment

To all girls, and boys too, so

Beautiful and hopeful in this hard world

And young.

Yesterday Mary spoke of children who look out on a broken world. We the readers, and certainly myself, wondered what to do with that deep sorrow, and perhaps even despair. Here, a day later, Mary speaks to my heart and outlines my strategy. Let us know that there is both tragedy, and beauty in the world, and let us help our children see this. Surely every child born will look out on fragmented and wounded lives. We cannot stop this. This doesn’t keep us from doing all we can to mend that brokenness that seems far too difficult a task to “fix” in one lifetime or even thousands. Knowing that the arc of the moral universe bends so very slowly towards justice, what can we do while we wait for the beloved community to come into being? I think we might also commit our lives to beauty and to joy. For when we do, if even for one fleeting moment, we give others a chance to rejoice in the splendor of our world . May we so do this, giving hope in our hard world.


Where do you adorn your life for the sake of beauty and hope?



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