an invitation to follow your heart’s longing

February 4, 2022February 3, 2022 ~ jama ~ 38 Comments

Hello Friends,

Today you are cordially invited to a moment of quiet reflection courtesy of Toronto-based author, poet, storyteller and spiritual counselor Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

Consider this a welcome break from daily tasks, rushing about, and crazy-making busyness — a chance to sink “into the fertile soil of the sometimes neglected inner life, where the seeds of remembering what matters are planted.”

THE INVITATION 
by Oriah

It doesn't interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me
how old you are.
I want to know 
if you will risk 
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are 
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you 
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn't interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know 
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone 
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

~ from The Invitation by Oriah (HarperCollins, Plus Edition, 2006)

*“High-Altitude Wind [Henri’s Sky] by Hiroshi Senju (1989)*

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Carol Ann Duffy: A Special Way of Seeing

January 28, 2022January 27, 2022 ~ jama ~ 40 Comments

Enjoy this enchanting poem by former UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

THE LOOK
by Carol Ann Duffy

The heron’s the look of the river.
The moon’s the look of the night.
The sky’s the look of forever.
Snow is the look of white.

The bees are the look of the honey.
The wasp is the look of pain.
The clown is the look of funny.
Puddles are the look of rain.

The whale is the look of the ocean.
The grave is the look of the dead.
The wheel is the look of motion.
Blood is the look of red.

The rose is the look of the garden.
The girl is the look of the school.
The snake is the look of the Gorgon.
Ice is the look of cool.

The clouds are the look of the weather.
The hand is the look of the glove.
The bird is the look of the feather.
You are the look of love.

~ from The Hat (London: Faber & Faber, 2007).

I love Duffy’s line of thinking — that one thing can be emblematic of another. We see how the human mind works, making associations and connections, sometimes between the tangible and intangible.

She actually had me at the first stanza: “the sky’s the look of forever” is such a lovely way to define the infinite. Poets do love a good metaphor.

Did the final line catch you by surprise? Duffy saved her direct address, one that veers from the established syntax, to powerful effect. “You are the look of love” trumps all that came before.

With its rhyme, repetition, and parallel structure, “The Look” reads like a revelatory incantation, arousing the reader’s curiosity as the pattern is established and each line introduces another comparison. Once the narrator has you in her thrall, she reveals the most important look of all at the very end.

This poem made me think:

The poem is the look of the heart.

Though I’m not a poet, I can see that “The Look” would make an excellent mentor text. Please feel free to share any “looks” of your own in the comments. 🙂

The lovely and talented Irene Latham is hosting the Roundup at Live Your Poem. Check out the full menu of poetic goodness being shared around the blogosphere this week and have a beautiful weekend!

♥️ Self taught Irish artist Rine Philbin, whose work graces this post, has been painting since childhood. Having grown up on a farm near the sea, her art is informed by the beautiful seascapes, landscapes and woods she has known and loved all her life. She works in watercolor, acrylics, and oil. Learn more at her Official Website.

[poems + recipe] playing with pooh

January 21, 2022January 20, 2022 ~ jama ~ 42 Comments

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’” ~ A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

Why, hello . . . and brrrrrrrrrr!

Have you been hibernating? Must say your freshly brushed fur looks stunning!

Since we’re feeling quite bearish after our holiday break, today we’re serving up some tea, cookies, and huggable poems to help us get back into the swing of things.

Our friend Pooh is joining us in remembrance of his creator A.A. Milne, born 140 years ago this week.

You probably know the world first “met” Pooh in Milne’s poem, “Teddy Bear” (initially published in Punch Magazine and then republished in his first book of verse, When We Were Very Young (1924)).

*“Teddy Bear” as it appeared in Punch with Shepard’s illustrations (1924).*

Though he wasn’t yet named ‘Winnie-the-Pooh,’ there’s no doubt whom Milne was referring to. Though at first worried about his size, Edward Bear comes to embrace his adiposity after a chance meeting with the King of France, who’s not only stout but handsome!

They stood beneath the window there,
The King and Mr. Edward Bear,
And, handsome, if a trifle fat,
Talked carelessly of this and that . . . 

A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at.
But do you think it worries him
To know that he is far from slim?
No, just the other way about --
He's proud of being short and stout.

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2021 Poetry Friday Archive

January 16, 2022August 26, 2024 ~ jama ~ 7 Comments

“In Rhapsodic Praise of Biscuits” by Joan Leotta

2. “Still Delighting in Snow” by Richard Greene

3. “The Blue Room” by Brian Doyle

4. “The Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire” by Sarah Kay

5. Two poems by Pat Schneider

6. “My Heart Cannot Accept it All” by Susan Kinsolving and “How Will This Pandemic Affect Poetry” by Julia Alvarez

7. “Yellow Butterflies Bring Happiness” by Sharon Lusk Munson

8. “Thesaurus” by Billy Collins

9. “9.” by E.E. Cummings and “Sonnet 12” by William Shakespeare

10. “Waters of March” by Tom Jobim

11. KIYOSHI’S WALK by Mark Karlins and Nicole Wong

12. “The Words of Poems” by Carol Ann Duffy + Poetry Friday Roundup

13. Three poems from MARROW OF SUMMER by Andrea Potos

14. Three poems from Make Me Rain by Nikki Giovanni

15. DELICIOUS!: Poems Celebrating Street Food Around the World by Julie Larios and Julie Paschkis

16. IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY by Rachel Piercey and Freya Hartas

17. Celebrating the Marvelous Mary Lee with two of her cake abecedarians

18. THE ABCs OF BLACK HISTORY by Rio Cortez and Lauren Semmer

19. “Permanently” by Kenneth Koch

20. “The Blue Garden” by Helen Dunmore

21. “Danny Boy”/A Song for Father’s Day

22. Mary Oliver dog poems

23. HOW TO HELP A PUMPKIN GROW by Ashley Wolff

24. Three Coffee Poems + Coffee Art

25. HARD-BOILED BUGS FOR BREAKFAST: And Other Tasty Poems by Jack Prelutsky and Ruth Chan

26. FOR EVERY LITTLE THING, edited by June Cotner and Nancy Tupper Ling, illustrated by Helen Cann

27. “Pomology” by Kim Roberts

28. “Kid, This is October” by Jeffrey Bean

29. “The Letter A” by Darren Sardelli

30. “Steps” by Frank O’Hara

31. WE LOVE PIZZA by Elenia Beretta

32. “Why I Changed My Name” by Phyllis Wax

33. “Soup Allure” by Nancy Dymond

34. DUMPLING DAY by Meera Sriram and Inés de Antuñano

35. “Bounty” by Robyn Sarah

36. Outlander Celebration: “Porridge” by Spike Milligan, “The Yule Days,” and “A Song for Kilts” by Robert Service

Outlandish Fun with Bannocks and Biscuits, Parritch and Kilts (+ a holiday blog break)

December 17, 2021June 25, 2024 ~ jama ~ 35 Comments

Don your kilts and pour yourself a wee dram. Today we’re serving up a little festive cheer à la Outlander.

While others may be channeling elves, sugarplum fairies, and red-nosed reindeer, we in the Alphabet Soup kitchen are getting our Scots on.

Ever since experiencing a long Scot summer binge-watching the Outlander TV series and taking a deep dive into Diana Gabaldon’s novels, all we can think about is ~~men in kilts fascinating Scottish history~~ time traveling between the 18th and 20th centuries.

*Central characters Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) contemplate potatoes.*

You can really work up an appetite falling through the stones and zipping around places like Boston, Inverness, Edinburgh, Paris, Jamaica, and North Carolina. Thank goodness for the fortifying recipes in Theresa Carle-Sanders’s Outlander Kitchen cookbooks.

Based in Pender Island, Canada, chef and diehard Outlander fan Carle-Sanders has done a wonderful job of creating cookbooks true to the series with a blend of historical recipes adapted for modern palates, along with her own creative, period appropriate dishes that reflect two centuries and the cuisines of several different countries (no small feat!).

*Whenever whisky appears in this post, you must sip!*

Suffice to say, Gabaldon’s generous bounty of culinary references in the series is a literary feast par excellence. Characters wet their whistles with ale, grog, tea, hot chocolate, brandy, wine, cider, and of course, lots and lots of whisky.

*The Fraser family at the Ridge, North Carolina.*

They feast on pheasant, venison, beef, ham, oysters, hares, lamb, chickens, mussels, boar, fish, eels, and haggis, as well as Hershey bars with almonds, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruitcakes, crumblies, tatties, pasties, sausages, nightingales (!) and rolls stuffed with pigeon and truffles, to name a few.

*Claire Fraser serves 20th century PBJ sandwiches to her 18th century family (via Outlander Cast).*

*Jamie eats his with a knife and fork (via Outlander Cast).*

Whether a bowl of restorative cock-a-leekie soup cooked in a big kettle outdoors at Lallybroch, or an elaborate, multi-course supper at the Palace at Versailles, Outlander food is its own character, telling stories of people, places, history, culture and heritage. Truly sensory-rich and satisfying!