Praying Hands - Ted Kooser
There is at least one pair
in every thrift shop in America,
molded in plastic or plaster of paris
and glued to a plaque,
or printed in church pamphlet colors
and framed under glass.
Today I saw a pair made out of
lightweight wire stretched over a pattern
of finishing nails.
this is the way faith goes
from door to door,
cast out of one and welcomed at another.
A butterfly presses its wings like that
as it rests between flowers.
Notes: I was asked to accompany my friend T to a book signing earlier this evening as he wanted me to meet a theologian friend of his. She had just written a memoir on leaving organized church for a more personal religion. As he was waiting in line to get his books signed (one of which was for me), I was looking at the small poetry rack they had in the store, and in this process picked up Ted Kooser's latest volume "Delights & Shadows".
I had read some of Kooser's poems in various anthologies, and more recently on the web when he was appointed as the current US Poet Laurate. I had first heard of Mr. Kooser in an essay titled "Business and Poetry" in Dana Gioia's "Can Poetry Matter?" (you can read the title essay here). The content of this essay dealt poets who make a living in business rather than taking shelter in the shady groves of Academia or depend on the kindness of strangers. In this essay, Mr. Gioia, who himself was a vice president of operations (which coincidentally is my professional field as well) at General Mills before he was become the head of the National Endownment for Arts (N.E.A), talks about poets such as William Carlos Williams (pediatrician), T. S. Eliot (banker), Wallace Stevens (corporate lawyer), and Ted Kooser (insurance), and how business did or did not impact their poetry.
Anyway, Mr. Kooser's poetry has a flavour and a presence similar to that of Wendell Berry's, a writer whose poems I enjoy and read often, usually in the outdoors. Consequently, I plan on exploring more of Mr. Kooser's poetry in the same fashion as well. Finally, these praying hands, as my friend T told me over dinner, are usually modeled after this classic print by Albrecht Durer.
Big Book Of Poetry
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The People Of The Other Village - Thomas Lux
hate the people of this village
and would nail our hats
to our heads for refusing in their presence to remove them
or staple our hands to our foreheads
for refusing to salute them
if we did not hurt them first: mail them packages of rats,
mix their flour at night with broken glass.
We do this, they do that.
They peel the larynx from one of our brothers’ throats.
We devein one of their sisters.
The quicksand pits they built were good.
Our amputation teams were better.
We trained some birds to steal their wheat.
They sent to us exploding ambassadors of peace.
They do this, we do that.
We canceled our sheep imports.
They no longer bought our blankets.
We mocked their greatest poet
and when that had no effect
we parodied the way they dance
which did cause pain, so they, in turn, said our God
was leprous, hairless.
We do this, they do that.
Ten thousand (10,000) years, ten thousand
(10,000) brutal, beautiful years.
This poem is an reminder to self on why it is, perhaps, better to block the ears and eyes against the din and flash of the news of wars. Ignorance is truely bliss when compared to powerless stupefication.
Big Book Of Poetry
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Music Note: Bach's Cello Suites
are musical big bangs in which a single instrument, the cello, constructs an entire self contained universe, with its light, darkness, intensity, passion, weariness, dancing joy, and then communion. Here you can listen to Mischa Maisky perform all of the six Cello Suites.
Music Posts
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