It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry. Those of you who receive The Washington Post Book Club newsletter may have read this poem. In the June 21st email, editor Ron Charles wrote about the long-awaited re-opening of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. A specially commissioned poem by Rita Dove is inscribed in a marble border that wraps around the west garden walkway. I'm not sure I'll be visiting the Library any time soon, but I keep returning to this poem again and again, so I'm sharing it here.
Look up into the blue amplitudes,
sun lolling on his throne, watching clouds
scrawl past, content with going nowhere.
No chart can calibrate the hush that settles
just before the first cricket song rises;
no list will recall a garden’s embroidery,
its fringed pinks and reds, its humble hedges.
Every day is Too Much or Never Enough,
so stop fretting your worth and berating
the cosmos – step into a house where
the jumbled perfumes of our human potpourri
waft up from a single page.
You can feel the world stop, lean in, and listen
as your heart starts up again.
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You can read more about the incredible story of the poem here, and listen to Rita Dove read the poem here.
You can also read more about Rita Dove (Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate) here.
Thanks for reading and joining us for our monthly Gathering of Poetry. You are more than welcome to add your link below if you would like to share one of your favorite poems. The more the merrier!
A favorite poet and what a beautiful poem!
ReplyDeleteThat poem is so perfect! It's a good reminder that there is beauty all around us and we need to make a point to stop and notice it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy poems like these that give me so much to think about. And that walkway! Thanks, Bonny.
ReplyDeleteLovely, Bonny! And perfect for the days we are living... thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love Rita Dove . . . and the poem you shared today is perfection! I'd love to walk and read along on that garden walkway.
ReplyDeleteWhat a rich story of how the poem came to be inscribed in stone for all to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteIt is a remarkable story and an equally remarkable poem. I hope to see it in person someday.
DeleteI made the mistake of picking up the WaPo this morning and I needed this. I also need to go and touch some grass before I lose my mind.
ReplyDeleteReading the WaPo (or almost any news) is often something I regret. I'm glad the poem helped.
DeleteThat is a GORGEOUS poem! Every day is Too Much or Never Enough is so perfect. And the human potpourri from a single page. Oh. This is a good one, Bonny.
ReplyDeletelove this poem and I love how it is inscribed, that is sooo cool!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely poem. I did read about the Folger Shakespeare Library in the Washington Post newsletter. I'd love to go visit. I was there once when I was about 15 years old on a family trip to DC.
ReplyDelete