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Compassion – A Haiku And Reflection

Speaking

      of compassion . . .

              she pins up my hair

***

Today is the 8th anniversary of my mother’s passing.   All is well.   I thought I’d share this haiku, which relates to different memories.  When I was a girl, Mom brushed my hair and braided it before school.   When she was old, I brushed her long hair for her.

This haiku was published first in Time Of Singing (1996).  Last week, it was published on my Haiku Registry Page on The Haiku Foundation website.  www.thehaikufoundation.org

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Winter Reading

Reblogged from Poems From Oostburg, Wisconsin:

Winter is here and I am reading more than writing these days.  The winter poetry journals are arriving, and I have new books by my side as well.  One is Desire To Inspire by Christine Mason Miller in California.  I am enjoying it very much.  www.christinemasonmiller.com The Haiku Foundation, founded by Jim Kacian, has a registry of poets worldwide.  This weekend I began reading it, from the beginning. There are short biographies of poets, along with some of their haiku.  This will be a good …

I’d like to share this post with readers of Poems From Psalms And Nature too. Thank you, Ellen

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Walking On Water: Reflections On Faith And Art – By Madeleine L’Engle

Walking On Water, by Madeleine L’Engle, is an important book for me.  It was published first in 1980 by Harold Shaw Publishers.  Recently, I also bought the paperback version, published by North Point Press, A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York.  So if you have not read the book and are interested, it’s still in print.  Your library may have a copy too.

Rather than write a review, I thought I’d share here and there the concepts I learned from Madeleine.  She taught me to “serve the work.” 

Here’s a quote from page 23 (both editions):

If the work comes to the artist and says, “Here I am, serve me,” then the job of the artist, great or small, is to serve.  The amount of the artist’s talent is not what it is about.

As I grow older, I find it helpful to reread books like Walking On Water.  I need to relearn old lessons within the challenges of current times.  Or perhaps simply rest with the voice of a beloved author. 

www.madeleinelengle.com

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Just when you thought the excitement was over

Reblogged from Violet Nesdoly / poems:

Just when you thought the excitement was over I know you just fell asleep after his midnight feed and that you’ve had an exhausting day. I know we’ve dreamed of living – just the three of us – in rooms behind the cedar-fragrant shop and that I promised to build you a kitchen table and new beds when we got back to Nazareth. I know that you can’t wait to show him to your mom and dad or put him in the clothes you stitched for him that he is even now outgrowing. I know that you were looking forward …