Kay Ryan (b. 1945)

Kay Ryan, Poet Laureate, 2008-2010

Patience

Patience is

wider than one

once envisioned,

with ribbons

of rivers

and distant

ranges and

tasks undertaken

and finished

with modest

relish by

natives in their

native dress.

Who would

have guessed

it possible

that waiting

is sustainable—

a place with

its own harvests.

Or that in

time's fullness

the diamonds

of patience

couldn't be

distinguished

from the genuine

in brilliance

or hardness.

Anders Gustave Aldrin, Sycamore Grove, 1935

Seven Blunders of the World

A list that Gandhi gave his grandson Arun, written on a piece of paper, on their final day together, shortly before his assassination.

·         Wealth without work

·         Pleasure without conscience

·         Knowledge without character

·         Commerce without morality

·         Science without humanity

·         Worship without sacrifice

·         Politics without principle

Doubting Easter?

Is your God too small?

today's decision

Chronology of Jesus

c. 3/2 BC

--Born

--Receives shepherds in Bethlehem

--Consecrated in Temple in Jerusalem

--Return to Nazareth in Lower Galilee

c. 1 AD

--Receives Wise Men in Bethlehem

--Flight to Egypt in Nile Delta

c. 3

--John the Baptist is born

c. 7

--Confounds priests in temple as a boy in Jerusalem

c. 26 - 33

--Baptized in Jordan River

--Temptation of Christ by Satan in the Desert and Jerusalem

--Favored by Nicodemus, a Pharisee in Jerusalem

--Listens to Samaritan woman in Samaria

--First miracle, water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana

--Heals nobleman's son in Cana

--Summons four fishermen to become followers in Sea of Galilee

--Heals Peter's mother-in-law in Capernaum

-- Faces town that attempts to kill him in Nazareth

--Undertakes first journey to preach in Galilee

--Accepts Matthew as follower in Capernaum

--Chooses 12 disciples in Capernaum

--Ministry begins in Galilee

--Preaches "Sermon on the Mount" in Capernaum

--Anointed by sinful woman in Capernaum

--Travels through Galilee

--Teaches parables about kingdom in Galilee

--Calms the storm in Sea of Galilee

--Heals the Gerasene Demoniacs in Gedera

--Restores life to Jairus's daughter in Capernaum

--Dispatches disciples to preach and heal in Capernaum

--Loses his cousin, John the Baptist, killed by Herod in Machaerus

--Feeds 5,000 people in Bethsaida

--Walks on water in Bethsaida

--Travels to Tyre/Sidon

--Feeds 4,000 people in Tyre/Sidon

--Proclaimed "Son of God" by Peter in Tyre/Sidon

--Foresees soon he will die in Caesarea Philippi

--Transfigured in Caesarea Philippi

--Pays temple taxes in Capernaum

--Attends Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem

--Heals a man who was born blind in Jerusalem

--Preaches on second  trip in Galilee

--Goes to be in Jerusalem for the last time

--Blesses little children in Jordan

--Presents choices to rich, young man in Jordan

--Foresees death and resurrection in Jordan

--Heals blind Bartimaeus in Jericho

--Confounds tax collector Zacchaeus in Jericho

--Visits Martha and Mary in Bethany

--Raises Lazarus from the dead in Bethany

--Enters Triumphant into Jerusalem

--Curses the fig tree in Jerusalem

--Using physical force, cleanses the temple of avaricious commerce in Jerusalem

--Confronts question of authority in Jerusalem

--Teaches as Rabbi in the temple in Jerusalem

--Anointed in Bethany

--Accedes to plot against Him in Bethany

--The Last Supper in Bethany

--Comforts the disciples in Bethany

--Gethsemane

--Arrested and tried in Bethany

--Crucified in Golgotha

--Buried in the tendered tomb of Joseph of Arimathea

--Materializes to Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem

--and to the two travelers in Emmaus

--and to 11 disciples in Jerusalem

--and to some disciples by Sea of Galilee

--Ascends from Mount of Olives
--Forever and forever Amen

Russian painter I. N. Kramskoi (1837-1887), Christ in the Desert, 1872

iths the easther bunny! slurp

"I have a ceremonial saber . . ."

Charles Simic, Poet Laureate, 2007-2008

"I am the last . . ."

  

I am the last Napoleonic soldier. It's almost two hundred years later and I am still retreating from Moscow. The road is lined with white birch trees and the mud comes up to my knees. The one-eyed woman wants to sell me a chicken, and I don't even have any clothes on.

The Germans are going one way; I am going the other. The Russians are going still another way and waving good-by. I have a ceremonial saber. I use it to cut my hair, which is four feet long.

parents of our hearts

Gashlycrumb Tinies, Edward St. John Gorey

 

it is fitting and delicious to lose everything

Donald Hall, Poet Laureate, 2006-2007

Affirmation

To grow old is to lose everything.

Aging, everybody knows it.

Even when we are young,

we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads

when a grandfather dies.

Then we row for years on the midsummer

pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,

that began without harm, scatters

into debris on the shore,

and a friend from school drops

cold on a rocky strand.

If a new love carries us

past middle age, our wife will die

at her strongest and most beautiful.

New women come and go. All go.

The pretty lover who announces

that she is temporary

is temporary. The bold woman,

middle-aged against our old age,

sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand.

Another friend of decades estranges himself

in words that pollute thirty years.

Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge

and affirm that it is fitting

and delicious to lose everything.

“Give up on yourself.
Begin taking action now, while being neurotic or imperfect, or a procrastinator or unhealthy or lazy or any other label by which you inaccurately describe yourself. Go ahead and be the best imperfect person you can be and get started on those things you want to accomplish before you die.”

- Shoma Morita, M.D.

As shocked as I was to see this swimsuit picture, clearly it was only a matter of time until a live human being grew into Barbie!

Words That Don’t Exist in the English Language

L’esprit de escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”

Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.