This New Year's Eve (Poem)

This New Year's Eve

 

the world again will refuse

the weight of grief – the war

 

declared for "absolute victory,"

the wounded strangers left

 

homeless in the Strip, Putin's

trains stalled at Ukraine's border,

 

Red Sea shipping lanes rocketing

with Houthi fire. Tonight,

for once, the world will crowd

the evening with too many

noise-makers – every body in

Manhattan showing up in the Square

with its glistering crystal ball

twelve feet in diameter.

Down a pole the orb will come,

marking more than a century

of midnight shifts, one year

folding into the next, precisely kept

for the more than billion revelers

tuning in via tv or Internet.

We will all look for the patterns

and meanings in the glass,

the balm of Love and Wisdom,

Happiness and Goodwill,

Harmony and Serenity,

Kindness and Fortitude,

Wonder and Imagination.

We will try to spot the hearts

overlapping, the wheel spinning,

Earth's sun, three pineapples,

butterflies in flight, a starburst

out of our Universe. And we will

recall the resolutions newly made,

already broken, sip Top 5 champagnes,

and keep our ears and eyes open.

Later will be time enough to protest.

___________________________________

The words "absolute victory" come from Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, referencing the goal of the country's war with the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Various Facts about the New Year's Eve Crystal Ball in Times Square

Some Other New Year's Eve Poems of Mine:

"New Year Games"

"January begins with cream"

"Watching the Clock on New Year's Eve"

"New Year's Eve 2009"

Thought for the Day

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

~ T. S. Eliot

________________________________

Quoted from T. S. Eliot, "The Rock" (Opening Stanza from Choruses), 1934.  Note: "The Rock" was a 21-page verse pageant play written on behalf of 45 Churches Fund of the Diocese of London. It was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre. An edition of 1,000 copies was published by Faber and Faber, London.

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), Poet, Essayist, Editor and Publisher, Playwright, Literary Critic; Winner, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1948

Thought for the Day

We only get one chance to live this life of love.

Every day is a lesson in love, learning how not to

bind up ourselves and our neighbors, but in fact

to free ourselves and others.

~ Fr. Richard Rohr

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Quoted from Richard Rohr, "The Prophetic Path: Motivated by Love - Knowing Jesus for Ourselves" from Daily Meditations, Center for Action and Contemplation, December 1, 2023

Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar and Ecumenical Teacher; Founder, Center for Action and Contemplation; Author

There is a light (Poem)

 

There is a light

that flickers violently

in the Middle East.

On this, the darkest

and longest of nights,

what has not been razed

in Gaza gives shelter:

a wind-whipped tent

among tents, a hospital

corridor, the burned-out

shell of an Orthodox church

where Christ, new-borne,

will lie among the rubble.

Soon a blast mistaken

for God's own voice joins

with the cries of children,

the silencing wails of women.

Snow is falling in Gaza,

and somewhere there

is a light that flickers,

land within sight.

Thought for the Day

[. . .] I think about tears as a doorway: an invitation

to be fully human and to connect with others,

in all the complexity that entails.

~ Benjamin Perry

______________________________

Quoted from Benjamin Perry, "What I Lost When I Stopped Crying" (Excerpt) in The Atlantic, May 15, 2023; Online

Benjamin Perry, Minister; Author, Cry, Baby

Thought for the Day

Be grateful, be father and mother, /

Be teacher, sister and brother /

In all that you dream and do, /

Against the day your ledger /

Is opened to you.

~ Robert McDowell 

___________________________

Quoted from Robert McDowell, "Grateful" from On Foot, In Flames (University of Pittsburgh Press) in Robert McDowell, Sweet Wolf Selected & New Poems (Homestead Lighthouse Press, 2021), p. 96

Robert McDowell, Poet, Author (Fiction, Criticism, Translation, Creative Nonfiction), Editor; Co-Founder (with Mark Jarman) of The Reaper Magazine and Story Line Press; Founder, Rural Readers Project; Co-Founder, Poets Prize; College and University Educator; Social Activist; Public Speaker

Robert McDowell Website

Staying Ahead of the Danger (Poem)

Staying Ahead of the Danger

Drone-dropped leaflets float down

like so much manna from heaven:

 

warnings with QR codes for

downloadable color-coded maps

 

outlining the "dangerous combat

zones" in the killing fields of Gaza.

There is no electricity to charge

the phones the IDF is calling.

Texts follow anyway. Evacuate,

those first ones order; stay inside

"known" shelters and schools,

command others. An official

spokesperson fails to see

the contradiction, estimates

that for every one Hamas militant

eliminated, two civilians die.

Let's be clear: This is the calculus 

only his government can live with,

the toll now "something more"

than the losses recorded yesterday,

and still "more than acceptable

compared to other armies

facing similar challenges 

in urban battlefields." After all,

what choice is there? "We

didn't start this war," he argues. 

__________________

The quotes in this poem come directly from an Israeli military spokesperson's explanation of his country's warning system, which uses air-dropped leaflets, drone broadcasts, telephone calling, texting, and Internet communications to warn Gazans to move out of harm's way as the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) advances its war against Hamas militants. Displacement in one area flows from displacement in another. As this Washington Post article makes clear from interviews with Gazans and humanitarian aid officials, there are no safe spaces for the Palestinians, not in homes, schools, hospitals, churches, or other shelters, especially where all essential services have ceased to exist. (See "Israel touts civilian warning system, but for Gazans, nowhere is safe".) The spokesperson's additional comments about the number of civilians killed compared to the number of militants are appalling, though the individual hastened to add – too late, in my opinion, to register a sense of compassion – that "any loss" is unacceptable. Numbers are telling. Facts are facts. We must all drop the scales from our eyes if we are to see this war, and this horrendous crisis for Palestinian civilians, in clear light and at last acknowledge those unlike ourselves as the human beings they are. (See also this New York Times coverage and, in particular, "An Airstrike hits Rafah, where Israel had urged Gazans to seek safety," (December 6, 2023): https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/12/06/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news.)

Thought for the Day

[. . . ] I lived in the present, which was

that part of the future you could see. [. . .]

~ Louise Gluck

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Quoted from Louise Gluck, "Landscape," The Threepenny Review, Winter 2005

Louise Gluck (April 22, 1943 - October 13, 2023), American Poet and Essayist; Winner, Nobel Prize in Literature, 2020; United States Poet Laureate, 2003-2004

 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] I have come around to understand the fact that in promising

us an afterlife, we are being given a chance to take care of

unfinished business. Because who, except the greatest 

of saints and the most innocent of persons, 

doesn't have unfinished business? [. . .]

~ Denise Levertov

_______________________________

Quoted from Emily Archer, "Conversation with Denise Levertov," Image, Issue 18, Winter 1997-1998

Denise Levertov (October 24, 1923 - December 20, 1997), British-Born Poet, Writer, Translator; Teacher; Political Activist

Uprootings (Poem)

 Uprootings

1

 

Ungloved hands once plucked ripe olives,

Palestinian symbol of resilience and pride.

They harvest now no more than branch

and bone, sprayed hectares amid grove fires.

 

2

 

In Khan Younis, beyond the border fence,

no one dances dabka. In Nablus, a farmer

hugs her tree, and cries; another watches,

his grape vines crushed, his fingers broken.

 

3

 

A city center's oil spills. A boy's toy

plane soars from a concrete balcony

just seconds before the blast

of a white phosphorus bomb.

 

4

 

Love of the land, for the land:

even the natural history of the soil

is denied, crops confined behind iron

gates, earth mounds, secure checkpoints.

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Peace, not only /

the absence of war. [. . .] 

~ Denise Levertov

_____________________________

Quoted from Denise Levertov, "Making Peace" in Breathing the Water (New Directions Press, 1997)

Text of Poem and Commentary by Felipe Herrera

"Making Peace" in The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (New Directions, 2013), pp. 757-758

Denise Levertov (1923-1997), British-born American Poet, Writer, Translator; Teacher; Political Activist

Denise Levertov Profiles at Academy of American Poets, Image Journal, New Directions, The New York Times

Thought for the Day

Eat the cake!

~ Hadley Vlahos on Advice from the Dying

____________________

 

Quoted from "Biloxi Native Writes WSJ bestseller 'The In Between'," Interview on WLOX (Video), June 27, 2023

 Hadley Vlahos, Hospice Nurse; Author, The In Between (Penguin Random House, 2023)

 

Excerpt from The In Between

 

David Marchese, "A Hospice Nurse on Embracing the Grace of Dying," Interview, The New York Times, October 21, 2023

Thought for the Day

. . . if your moral compass is attuned to the suffering of only one

side, your compass is broken, and so is your humanity.

~ Nicholas Kristof

____________________

Quoted from Nicholas Kristof, "Opinion: Seeking a Moral Compass in Gaza's War" in The New York Times, October 11,  2023 (Online)

Nicholas Kristof, Columnist, The New York Times; Pulitzer Prize Winner; Author

Thought for the Day

It is not because spring / is too beautiful /

that we'll not write what / happens in the dark.

~ Etel Adnan

______________________________

Quoted from Etel Adnan, "The Spring Flowers Own" in The Spring Flowers Own & The Manifestations of the Voyage (Poet-Apollo Press, 1990)

Etel Adnan (1925-2021), Lebanese Poet and Artist

Etel Adnan Profile at Poetry Foundation

A Poet's View (Poem)

A Poet's View

1

Explosions settle

dust on the table,

the last of the bread

in orbit, saucers

overflowing with

black tea, stains spreading

from here to there and

a mother, crying

between screams. Her

child, motionless.

Beit Lahia was warned.

2

The children have no

room to run, no pitas

to calm their asking

for juice. No biscuits.

No mangoes to toss

like footballs. Olive

trees: splintered. Water

erupting old pipes.

Books - by Gibran and

Darwish and Shihab

 

Nye - floating past as

another shock wave

 

works its way through the

electrical grid.

 

Thirteen floors tumble

to garden level.

 

Drones yet whirred like flies.

 

3

 

Numbers. Begin with

one thousand four hundred

 

news-worthy names shared

world-wide. Not Beit Lahia's.

 

There, leaflets, like birds,

still fall from the sky,

 

where the cries of dogs

become lullabies;

 

pots and pans, rockets.

 

4

 

Stones or bombs:

what's the difference?

 

5

 

All going south.

 

____________________________________

 

This poem was inspired by poet Mosab Abu Toha’s essay in The New Yorker, “The View from My Window in Gaza,” October 20, 2023. Online: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/the-view-from-my-window-in-gaza

Thought for the Day

A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it.

~ T'ao Ch'ien

______________________________

Quoted from T'ao Ch'ien, "[i built my hut]" (trans. Arthur Waley) in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, 1918; Public Domain. (The poem appeared in Every Day Poems on September 18, 2023.)

T'ao Ch'ien (365 C.E. - 427 C.E.), Chinese Poet and Politician (The poet also was known as T'ao Yuan-ming.)

The Selected Poems of T'ao Ch'ien (trans. David Hinton), Copper Canyon Press, 2000

Thought for the Day

We need to look everyone and everything in the face

and be amazed at the face of God looking back at us.

~ Fr. Dan Riley, O.F.M.

_________________________

Quoted from Fr. Dan Riley, "Week Thirty-Six Practice: Franciscan Lectio" in "Week Thirty-Six Summary: The Franciscan Way, " Center for Action and Contemplation, September 9, 2023

Fr. Dan Riley, Founder, Warming House (Oldest Student-Run Soup Kitchen in U.S.) and Mt. Irenaeus (Franciscan Mountain Community); Author

Dan Riley with Stephen Copeland, Franciscan Lectio: Reading the World through the Living Word (Paraclete Press, 2022), pages 15-16, 17

"Fr. Dan Riley honored with Doctorate at St. Bonaventure's 163rd Commencement," News Release, St. Bonaventure University, May 14, 2023

Claire Fisher, "Friar Feature: Fr. Dan Riley O.F.M" in The Bona Venture, November 4, 2022

Center for Action and Contemplation

Thought for the Day

Religious faith, artistic inspiration, romantic-sexual love,

the process of psychological healing, and all other arenas

of contemplative experiences and self-transformation,

can and should be arenas of heightened compassionate 

sensitivity to the real needs of those around us.

~ Dr. James Finley

_____________________________

Quoted from Daily Meditations, "Compassionate Contemplation: James Finley encourages each of us to continue on the contemplative path," September 1, 2023

James Finley, Clinical Psychologist; Faculty Member, Center for Action and Contemplation; Author; Student of Thomas Merton

Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar; Founder, Center for Action and Contemplation; Teacher; Author

Center for Action and Contemplation

Thought for the Day

[. . .] However completely we've cocooned ourselves within

a virtual world of our own making, our animal body still takes

its final directives from the larger biosphere—it still needs  to

breathe, and to drink fresh water. It remains susceptible to illness,

to creaturely empathy, to the upwelling of earthly wonder. [. . .]

~ David Abram

______________________________

Quoted from David Abram, "Creaturely Migrations on a Breathing Planet," Emergence Magazine (Online), June 9, 2023

David Abram, Cultural Ecologist, Geo-Philosopher, Lecturer, Author, Performance Artist

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Place as much as you can in your heart. 

It doesn't matter what's in / your mind. [. . .]

~ Jorie Graham

_____________________________

Quoted from Jorie Graham, "To 2040" in To 2040 (Copper Canyon Press, 2023), p. 22 

Jorie Graham Profile at Copper Canyon Press

Jorie Graham Website

Thought for the Day

Let us reclaim creativity and imagination as essential, central,

and necessary parts of our faith journey. Imagination is a gift

given to us by the Creator to steward, a gift that no other creature

under heaven and earth (as far as I know) has been given.

~ Makoto Fujimura

_____________________________

Quoted from Makoto Fujimura, Art + Faith: A Theology of Making (Yale University Press, 2020), p. 149

Makoto Fujimura, Artist; Author; Founder, International Arts Movement and Fujimura Institute; Co-Founder, Kintsugi Academy

Thought for the Day

One of the most difficult challenges for couples is getting them to

see beyond their own entrenched perspectives, to acknowledge

a partner's radical otherness and appreciate difference and 

sovereignty. [. . .] To be truly open to your partner's experience, 

you must relinquish your conviction in the righteousness of your

  own position; this requires humility and the courage

 to tolerate uncertainty. [. . .]

[. . . ] Love is ultimately measured by people's capacity to see

and care about the other person, as [that other person is];

succeeding in this effort is how people in relationships grow.

~ Dr. Orna Guralnik

____________________________

Quoted from Dr. Orna Guralnik, "I'm a Couples Therapist. Something New Is Happening in Relationships" in The New York Times, May 16, 2023; Online (Audio of the article is available online. A version of the article appeared in print in the Sunday New York Times Magazine on May 21, 2023, p. 37. The entire article is well-worth reading.)

Dr. Orna Guralnik, Clinical Psychologist, Psychoanalyst, and Academic (New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis); Therapist, Showtime's "Couples Therapy"; Writer

Orna Guralnik's Website

Thought for the Day

If you see life's potential as art, is it artful or artificial living?

~ Terrance Hayes

______________________

Quoted from Terrance Hayes, "American Sonnet Starring Octavia Butler II" in So to Speak (Penguin Random House, 2023)

The quote is the concluding line of the poem, which appeared in Poetry Daily on August 24, 2023.

Terrance Hayes, Honored Poet; Professor of Creative Writing, New York University

Thought for the Day

[. . .] love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. [. . .]

~ Galatians 5:22 (The Fruit of the Spirit)

_______________________

Quoted from "The Letter of Paul to the Galatians" in "The New Testament" in The Holy Bible (New Revised Standard Version, 1989), p. 249

Opinion columnist David French writes, "[W]hen you encounter another person — regardless of what they say about their religious beliefs — you can discern their true character by such traits. [. . .]" (David French, "Political Christianity Has Claws" in The New York Times, August 24, 2023; Online) 

Considering these virtues, then, the question to ask ourselves is, What is the message of "political Christians" today, if, as French comments, the Fruit of the Spirit is to "help us obey one of our highest calls: to love our neighbors as we love ourselves."

Thought for the Day

[. . . ] If we're not paying attention through our own

senses, we have disengaged from the primary mode

in which every creature since the origin of life has

connected to its environment. And if we're not listening,

we've got no stories to tell the future. [. . .]

~ David G. Haskell

_____________________________

Quoted from Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, "Listening and the Crisis of Inattention: An Interview with David G. Haskell," Emergence Magazine (Online), April 21, 2022

David G. Haskell, Biologist, Writer and Author

Thought for the Day

[. . .]

What we bring, finally, into the new day, every day, //

Is ourselves. And that's all we need /

To start. That's everything we require to keep going.

~ Alberto Rios

_______________________

Quoted from "A House Called Tomorrow: Fifty Years of Poetry" (Copper Canyon Press, 2023)

Alberto Rios, Award-Winning Poet, Short Story Writer, Memoirist, Novelist; Inaugural Poet Laureate of Arizona; Chancellor Emeritus, Academy of American Poets, 2014-2020; Regents' Professor, Arizona State University

Copper Canyon Press

Thought for the Day

[. . .] — to come anywhere in the world or, more accurately,

to be anywhere in the world — is not only to register accurately

what one sees, and not only to convey how one sees it (how one

assesses it, how one judges it). It is to turn seeing into witnessing,

and witnessing into advocacy. And most importantly, to inspire

a similar transformation in others. [. . .]

~ George Dardess

_______________________________

Quoted from George Dardess, "See So That Others May See," Essay at Close Reading Blog, June 19, 2023

George Dardess, Ph.D., Close Reader of English Literature; Roman Catholic Deacon; Writer and Author; Critical Reviewer; Expert in Muslim-Christian Relations (Among George Dardess's work is the graphic novel Foreign Exchange.)

Other Essays by George Dardess at SlantBooks

Thought for the Day

Silence is a flower, it opens up, dilates, extends /

its texture, can grow, mutate, return on its steps. /

It can watch other flowers grow and become what /

they are. [. . .]

~ Etel Adnan

____________________________________

Quoted from Etel Adnan, Shifting the Silence (Nightboat Books, 2020), page 68

Etel Adnan (1925-2021), Lebanese-American Poet, Essayist, Novelist, Translator, Internationally Exhibited Visual Artist, Playwright

Thought for the Day

[. . . ] to love who we love /

is an undoing [. . . .]

~ Maya Stein

_____________________________

Quoted from Maya Stein, "to love who we love" (Poem Celebrating Pride Month), June 16, 2023

Maya Stein, Poet, Writing Guide, Freelance Writer-Editor, Author

Maya Stein on Instagram

Thought for the Day

Mortality got my attention.

Imagination is a form of courage, as courage is

a form of imagination.

You don't want to die not having lived.

~ Jorie Graham

______________________________

Quoted from Jill Radsken, "'Mortality got my attention, says poet whose latest collection is 'To 2040'," Interview with Jorie Graham, The Harvard Gazette, May 31, 2023

Jorie Graham, Poet; Editor; Boylston Professor of Oratory and Rhetoric, Harvard University; Former Chancellor, The Academy of American Poets

Thought for the Day

Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning.

Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not

contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we

carry for what we once held close.

~ Francis Weller

___________________________________

Quoted from Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief (North Atlantic Books, 2015)

Francis Weller, Psychotherapist, Writer

Thought for the Day

I am the interval between what I am and what I am not,

between what I dream and what life makes of me. [. . .]

~ Fernando Pessoa

_____________________________________

Quoted from Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (New Directions, 2017), Jeronimo Pizarro, ed., and Margaret Jull Costa, trans. Note: Originally published in Portuguese in 1982, this complete, illustrated edition contains aphorisms, ruminations, melancholic observations, reveries, and autobiographic or essay-like passages on life said to have been written by one of Pessoa's alter egos, Bernardo Soares. The quote from this difficult-to-characterize book, has been translated variously.

Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), Portuguese Poet, Writer, Literary Critic, Translator, Philosopher, Publisher

Thought for the Day

But I learned there's no shortage of suffering—

that a father's no shield for his child

when life is, in fact, a walk across a field.

~ Tom Sleigh

_______________________________

Quoted from Tom Sleigh, "Apology to My Daughter" in The King's Touch: Poems (Graywolf Press, 2022), p. 63

Tom Sleigh, Poet, Essayist, Dramatist, Academic

Thought for the Day

To go in search of what once was is to

postpone the difficulty of living with what is.

~ Barry Lopez

_____________________________

Quoted from Barry Lopez, "Port Arthur to Botany Bay" in Horizons (First Vintage Books, 2020), p. 400

Barry Lopez (1945-2020), American Nature Writer, Fiction Writer, Essayist, Humanitarian and Environmentalist

Barry Lopez Obituary

Barry Lopez Foundation 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] we are only as limited as we want to be.

When we define ourselves only by our limitations,

we fail to see what greater things those limitations

are calling us for. [. . .]

~ Joan Chittister

________________________________

Quoted from Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years: Growing Old Gracefully (BlueBridge, 2008), p. 140

Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sister of Erie, Theologian, Author, Speaker

Thought for the Day

I believe that love is our greatest and hardest work.

~ Brian Doyle

____________________________

Quoted from Brian Doyle, "The Sea" in One Long River of Song (Back Bay Books/Little Brown, 2019), p. 35

Brian Doyle (1956-2017), American Writer, Novelist, Nonfiction Writer, Short Fiction Writer, Essayist, Poet; Editor, Portland Magazine

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Did you know / there are tribes in the Amazon rain forest //

who are, this minute, speaking a language without /

the past tense? [. . .]

~ Faith Shearin

_____________________________________

Quoted from Faith Shearin, "No Eyes" in Lost Language: Poems (Press 53, 2020), p. 30

Faith Shearin, Award-Winning Poet 

Thought for the Day

History tells us that with every great empire

comes great barbarism, that the two are inseparable, 

so that to diminish barbarism you must dismantle

the empires. This forces the question of what, really,

civilization brings to people that they did not already

have. And why is civilization so hard on the people

who turn it down?

~ Barry Lopez

____________________________

Quoted from Barry Lopez, "Puerto Ayora" in Horizons (Vintage, 2019), p. 216

Barry Lopez (1945-2020), American Author, Essayist, Nature Writer, Fiction Writer

Barry Lopez Obituary at The New York Times, December 26, 2020 (Updated January 12, 2021)

Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment

Thought for the Day

Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.

~ Clementine Paddleford

________________________

Quoted from Clementine Paddleford, c. 1920s

Clementine Paddleford (1898-1967), American Journalist, Food Writer

Kansas Historical Society

Thought for the Day

[. . .] weeping may linger for the night,

but joy comes in the morning. [. . .]

~ Psalm 30

___________________________

Quoted from The NRSV Bible, Psalm 30, v. 5 

Thought for the Day

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

~ Wendell Berry

____________________________________

Quoted from Wendell Berry, "Our Real Work" from Standing by Words (Counterpoint, 1983)

Wendell Berry, American Poet, Novelist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Educator, Christian Pacifist, Environmental Activist, Cultural Critic, Farmer

Thought for the Day

Individuals no more exceptional than the rest of us

provide stunning examples of our finest moments as humans.

~ Robert M. Sapolsky

___________________________________

Quoted from Robert M. Sapolsky, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (Penguin Books, 2017 [paperback]), p. 674

Robert M. Sapolsky, American Neuroendocrinology Researcher; Author; Professor of Biology, Neurology & Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery, Stanford University; Speaker, TED Talks

Thought for the Day

The world outside the self

 is indifferent to the fate of the self.

~ Barry Lopez

______________________________

Quoted from Barry Lopez, Horizon (Vintage Books, 2020 [paperback]), p. 484

Barry Lopez (1945-2020), American Environmentalist, Author. Essayist, Story Writer, Researcher

Barry Lopez Obituary at The New York Times

Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment

Thought for the Day

Do we want to love well?

Then first we must know what it means to abide.

~ Dr. Laurie Wilson

__________________________________

Quoted from Dr. Laurie Wilson, "Abide to Love," Devotional Essay for The Lent Project at Center for Christianity Culture and the Arts at Biola University, March 28, 2023

Dr. Laurie Wilson, Assistant Professor, Torrey Honors College, Biola University

Thought for the Day

[. . .] love //

is a longer voyage /

than life.

~ Nathalie Handal

___________________________

 

Quoted from Nathalie Handal, "Tessera" in Volo (Diode Eds., 2022); Excerpted by Poetry Daily, February 17, 2023

Nathalie Handal, Poet, Playwright, Essayist, Creative Nonfiction Writer, Editor

Thought for the Day

Marvels offer common ground;

wonder is a shared delight, a shared motive.

~ Marina Warner

_______________________________

Quoted from Marina Warner, "Nothing More Wondrous" in The New York Review of Books, February 23, 2023 (Online and Print)

Marina Warner, Professor of English and Creative Writing, Birkbeck College, University of London; Distinguished Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Author; Writer of Fiction, Criticism, History; Memoirist, Essayist, Novelist, Short Story Writer

Thought for the Day

You learn a lot by staying in one place

But never how the story truly ends.

~ Dana Gioia

______________________________

Quoted from Dana Gioia, "At the Crossroads" in Literary Hub, February 6, 2023; Excerpted from Gioia's Collection Meet Me at the Lighthouse (Graywolf Press, 2023)

Dana Gioia, Poet, Literary Translator, Literary Critic, Essayist, Editor, Librettist, Arts Advocate; California State Poet Laureate, 2015-2019

Thought for the Day

History is chasing you, America, like a mean dog, 

and the only way to get it off your back is to turn

around and stare it in the face.

~ Lucille Clifton

_______________________________

Quoted from Lucille Clifton Reading, Department of English, University of Memphis, and River City Writers' Series, 1992-1993 Series

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010), American Poet, Children's Book Author

Thought for the Day

[. . .] The earth is where we draw our strength.

The community is where we are shaped and held,

validated, known and protected. [. . .]

~ V (formerly, Eve Ensler)

___________________________

Quoted from Excerpt from V, Reckoning (Bloomsbury, 2023), Published in Literary Hub Politics, "Banishments Inside of Banishment: How Global Capitalism Destroys Our Connection to Place," February 1, 2023

V (Formerly, Eve Ensler), Playwright, Auhor, Performer, Activist

Thought for the Day

 [. . .] Time is a long sunrise where we wait for our halos.

Night is the ash that covers the light. [. . .]

~ Kelli Russell Agodon

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Quoted from Kelli Russell Agodon, "Till Death Shatters the Fabulous Stars" in Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press, 2021), p. 48

 

Kelli Russell Agodon, Poet, Writer, Editor, Book Designer, Co-Founder, Two Sylvias Press

Thought for the Day

This beautiful gift of attention that we human beings have

is being hijacked to pay attention to products and someone

else's political agenda. Whereas if we can reclaim our

attention and pay attention to things that really matter,

there a revolution starts.

~ Robin Wall Kimmerer

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Quoted from David Marchese, "You Don't Have to Be Complicit in Our Culture of Destruction" (Interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer), The New York Times Magazine, January 29, 2023

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Member, Citizen Potawatomi Nation; Professor, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Author, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions, 2015) and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Oregon State University Press, 2003)

Thought for the Day

 [. . .] it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence.

And there are so many silences to be broken.

~ Audre Lorde

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Quoted from Audre Lorde, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" (Essay), Delivered at Modern Language Association's "Lesbian and Literature Panel," Chicago, Ill., December 28, 1977; First Published in Sinister Wisdom 6 (1978) and The Cancer Journals (Spinsters, Ink, San Francisco, 1980) Note: The link is to the essay reproduced by Electric Literature from Sister Outsider (1984), p. 44. The latter comprises a collection of essays and speeches by Lorde written between 1976 and 1984. A 2007 reprint of the collection is available from Crossing Press.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992), American Writer, Essayist, Poet, Feminist, Civil Rights Activist, Professor

The Audre Lorde Project

Audre Lorde Profiles at Academy of American Poets,  National Women's History Museum, and Poetry Foundation

Thought for the Day

Person-to-person is the way the gospel was originally communicated.

Person-in-love-with person, person-respecting-person, person-

forgiving-person, person-touching-person, person-crying-

with-person, person-hugging-person: that's where

 the Spirit is so beautifully present.

~ Fr. Richard Rohr

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Quoted from Richard Rohr, "Jesus's Person-to-Person Ministry," Daily Meditation, Center for Action and Contemplation, December 27, 2022

Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Priest, Ecumenical Teacher, Author, Founder of CAC

Thought for the Day

 [. . .] we live hopeful amid utter senselessness.

~ Joshua Cohen

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Quoted from "The Gods of Chaos and Stupidity," Daniel Drake Interview with Joshua Cohen, The New York Review of Books,  November 5, 2022

Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist, Story Writer,  and Editor, Contributor to The New York Review of Books

Daniel Drake, Editor, The New York Review of Books

 

Thought for the Day

It is an act of trust to tell someone that you don't trust them.

~ Nancy Crawford

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Quoted from Nancy Crawford, "Give Generously," Devotional for Day 34, December 30, 2022, The Advent Project, Center for Christianity, Culture & the Arts, Biola University

Nancy Crawford, Psy.D., Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training, Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University

Thought for the Day

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things,

and no good thing ever dies.

~ Andy Dufresne

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Quoted from The Shawshank Redemption's "Andy Dufresne" in Letter to "Red".

Andy Dufresne, Prison Philosopher and Principal Protagonist Played by Actor Tim Robbins in 1994 Film Based on Stephen King's Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

Douglas Charles, "Meet Frank Freshwaters, The Real-Life Andy Dufresne Who Served Time and Escaped 'Shawshank Prison'," brobible, March 22, 2022

Thought for the Day

I believe a meaningful life comes from working in the service

of your talents — whatever strengths and qualities you have,

unique to you or rare in your circles, try to rally that talent

in order to create change. Hopefulness follows on from feeling

useful; too often people believe it's the other way around.

~ Rebecca Giggs

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Quoted from "The Intertidal Zone," Arianne Gonzalez Interviews Rebecca Giggs, The New York Review, December 17, 2022

Rebecca Giggs, Science Writer; Author, Fathoms:  The World in the Whale (2020)

Thought for the Day

How do we stay open to the possibility of hope and awe,

when so much of nature feels haunted by human problems?

~ Rebecca Giggs

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Quoted from "The Intertidal Zone," Arianne Gonzalez's Interview with Rebecca Giggs, The New York Review, December 17, 2022

Rebecca Giggs, Science Writer; Author, Fathoms: The World in the Whale (2020)