Poems for 12/16
To Help the Monkey Cross the River -- BY THOMAS LUX
Praise Them -- By Li-Young Lee
3 poems by by Susan Ludvigson, from her book Sweet Confluence
Gratitude; Returning; Varieties of Angels.
I didn't plan it to be a series of poems by "L's" -- but for the last session of the year, we squared the corners with the humor of Lux, the meditative grace of Lee, and Ludvigson.
So, did the Monkey ask for our help? What is helpful intervention? Irony : we learn from animals…
and yet cage the one we ressemble the most.
"In Praise them", we have more animals... this time an aerial perspective -- not a parable or sermon, but rather an invitation. The invitation, "... See
how three birds in a winter tree
make the tree barer.
Two fly away, and new rooms
open in December.
has the paradox of "less is more" in the cycle of things. We, the "nervous" and judging ones,
if even ONE of us could be gentle enough -- that possibility that a bird would come and complete us with singing is there...
the multiple perspectives -- not just our Judeo-Christian one... Each living thing lends to live, not just us.
In Gratitude, the body is celebrated -- we are not just mind or just spirit...
Are we spiritual beings trying to human?
If we were truly human, we could be more spiritual.
Catherine brought up Matthew Fox and medieval Catholic visionaries as Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas,Saint Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Dante Alighieri, Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa.
Fox's Creation Spirituality also is aligned strongly with ecological and environmental movements of the late 20th century and with a focus on “deep ecumenism” that embraces numerous spiritual traditions around the world, including Buddhism, Judaism, Sufism, and Native American teachings.
Fox has written 30 books that have sold millions of copies and by the mid 1990s had attracted a "huge and diverse following".[3]
Fox was likened by academic theologians in one New York Times article to the controversial and influential 20th century Jesuit priest, philosopher and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, particularly for his interpretations of issues such as the doctrine of original sin and the Cosmic Christ and for the resulting conflicts with church authorities.
In Returning :
Dreamlike state... vs. the world which tries to dissuade us from leaving home...
After being lost...
"...it's a kind of grace—like geometry,
where right answers come through paths
we can never retrace—showing we're blessed.
Lost, lost, we cry, but return
like pigeons whose routes are unerring, unearned.
communication : conscious and unconscious…
What dwarves are working down there?
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