There's a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins I've long loved*, and it is what comes to mind when I think of "sea". It is called "Heaven-Haven" and is subtitled "A nun takes the veil": I have desired to go Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail And a few…
Noticing, Day 31 (and Five Minute Friday): Leave
Leave. It comes with connotations of goodbyes, yet it need not. This verb can also mean "to put forth leaves." On the sidewalks I notice that Bartlett Pear leaves begin to pile in thick crimson piles, and on the crepe myrtle branches leaves are at once less frequent and more colorful. Gerard Manley Hopkins describes…
Experienced: Word-Wonder Day 25
Along with the compressed-ness that belongs to poetry, there's also this: understanding poetry is an experiential rather than a cognitive process. Pastor and author Eugene Peterson explains that "We do not have more information after we read a poem, we have more experience" (Reversed Thunder, 1988). Certainly, we can, with some poems, distill a meaning…
Five Minute Friday: Worship
The word is "worship," and a friend wished me Spirit-filled days, citing Ephesians 5:18-19 with singing and heart-praising God as evidence. And what does that look like? To start the day saying "I am Yours; save me"? To listen to the songs that make you sing? What does it look like when you're building blisters…
when something happens
"When something happens, it happens first, and you see it afterwards. It happens of itself, and you have nothing to do with it. It proves a dreadful thing -- that there are other things besides oneself." --G. K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill I try, intermittently, to live as if I am the only…
i like poetry
Not that that is a surprise to readers of my blog. This week, I found the following from Gerard Manley Hopkins (whom, if you haven't noticed, I also like): My own heart let me more have pity on; let Me live to my sad self hereafter kind, Charitable; not live this tormented mind With this…
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!" For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, And from the deadly pestilence. He will…
dappled
Two words of summation for myself today: pensive and vicissitudinous. And as I engage in deep thoughtfulness about my variations, this comes to mind: Pied Beauty, Gerard Manley Hopkins Glory be to God for dappled things - For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal…
I have desired to go Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail And a few lilies blow. And I have asked to be Where no storms come, Where the green swell is in the havens dumb, And out of the swing of the sea. ~Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Heaven-Haven: A…
Between Blue Rocks 