I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that’s you) I was struck by the poem that is the final song in the set.  I hope you find some joy and inspiration in it as I did on this crisp Friday morning.

Sunrise, by Mary Oliver

You can
die for it –
an idea,
or the world.  People

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light.  But

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,
and India dn Europe, and I thought
hoe the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us?  Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

“Sunrise,” Copyright 1986 by mary Oliver.  From DREAM WORK (Atlantic Monthly Press). Copied from the song cycle by Lori Laitman, called “Sunflowers”, published by  Enchanted Knickers Music.