Monday Whatevers: Part 1 of 2

April 11, 2022

Hello, Friend! 

It’s Monday, so… inspired by on one of my favorite bits of the Bible, let’s start every week off with a little bit of whatever’s good and noble in the world. Here are a few excellent and noteworthy things I’m seeing in the world right now. Some are beautiful, promising, and reassuring. Some are poignant, thought-provoking, and necessary. All of them add to a greater knowing of God’s presence in this world, within our humanity, and out in the great beyond. And, they all prove there’s an abundance of spectacular, breathtaking tangible and intangible cosmic matter between us. 

Please feel free to share in the comments whatever is good that you’re seeing in the world as well.  

Blessings,
Marcie 

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April is National Poetry Month—and I so dearly love poetry and would like to celebrate it in this week’s Monday Whatever list. 

I know that poetry is not everyone’s jam, but I do think that’s only because we’ve been conditioned to make believe that reading it is a burden rather than the gift. How many of us have had than benevolent teachers who often assigned the most far-reaching, ancient, and tiresome poems written by dead white men to study? 

This week, in celebration of Easter and Spring, I want to share poems of renewal and new beginnings written by deeply reflective poets who—in a few short verses—captured things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise. I LOVED far more poems than I could post and FAR MORE Alma Thomas paintings than I could fit here. So, I’ll send out Part 2 later this afternoon.

Peace. 

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Alma Thomas – Resurrection (1966)

Daniel Ladinsky: The Sun Never Says

The Sun Never Says
Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe
Me."
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole Sky.

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Alma Thomas – Snoopy Sees the Earth Wrapped in Sunset (1970)

Thich Nhat Hanh: The Earth is Waiting for You

The Earth is always patient and open-hearted.
She is waiting for you.
She has been waiting for you
for the last trillion lifetimes.
She can wait for any length of time.
She knows you will come back to her one day.
Fresh and green, she will welcome you
exactly like the first time,
because love never says, 'This is the last time';
because Earth is a loving mother.
She will never stop waiting for you.

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Alma Thomas – Earth Sermon, Beauty, Love And Peace (1971)

Anne Sexton: Welcome Morning

There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry 'hello there, Anne'
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
let it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.

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Alma Thomas – Spring Grass (1973)

Carl Sandburg: Spring Grass

Spring grass, there is a dance to be danced for you.
Come up, spring grass, if only for young feet.
Come up, spring grass, young feet ask you.

Smell of the young spring grass,
You're a mascot riding on the wind horses.
You came to my nose and spiffed me. This is your lucky year.

Young spring grass just after the winter,
Shoots of the big green whisper of the year,
Come up, if only for young feet.
Come up, young feet ask you.

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Alma Thomas – Snoopy Sees a Daybreak on Earth (1970)

Anne Spencer: Earth, I Thank You

Earth, I thank you
for the pleasure of your language
You’ve had a hard time
bringing it to me
from the ground
to grunt thru the noun
To all the way
feeling seeing smelling touching
—awareness
I am here!

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May your week be filled with whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise.

Much Peace,
Marcie, BCWWF