Ooooh, Mary, I love the ideas in your poem, that the making of beauty took months and months. Thanks for a Poetry Month post! I missed the entire month as well. :) Love this!
Thanks for reading! I double posted accidentally.🙃I was reminded of another poem this morning that made me think of both your interview and my poem, the concept of noticing the beautiful world around us and being grateful for a seat at the table. I’m sharing a link to Mary Oliver’s “Invitation,” and to James Crews reading the poem on the podcast, which was a tribute to her and to poetry. https://wordsfortheyear.com/2017/08/28/invitation-by-mary-oliver/
I love your poem and this post, and not just because you talk about me multiple times. The concept of play when writing is so important. Jess Walter said the same thing when he spoke at our school back in January. That changed the game for me, creatively. Thanks for the Ada recap since some of us didn’t get a ticket. 😀
I found some time to play with my watercolors and checked a book out of this book out of the library https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11773036 ...spent a fun 30 minutes drawing cats! The first exercise....and last week also did the second exercise as well--blind contour drawing of a giraffe. No expectations, just fun!
My niece once gifted me a poem. She sent an email that said, “ I wrote this and I think I kind of wrote it for you.” The poem tells the story of baby birds leaving their nest one by one because it was time. In my deep grief back then, when I was still numb and lost, I thanked my niece but didn’t say much else. Now I am nearing the one year mark since my husband’s death, and rereading it I will say that you did write it for me. Though I still feel lost at times in this journey of becoming, I can receive the poem fully and gratefully with a clearer mind and an open heart.
In the last verse of the poem, my niece writes that she’s thinking of me in my grief and wonders if there’s something for me to learn here. There is-she knew it before me. Her words gave me hope and validated who I am, who I’ve always been, and who I will be on my journey of becoming in the face of this loss. To feel seen, to know I am loved, was the greatest gift I could have received at that time. You were right- I found out that I do know how to fly after all. Thank you.
Thanks for being here in this space and being vulnerable. Thanks for sharing about your niece - my aunt is pretty brave and good with words. 🤗 And thanks for the reminder of getting to watch those baby birds take flight. It’s pretty cool to watch someone take flight.
I was also lucky enough to get to go to Trevor Noah last week, and his jokes about the national anthem definitely made me laugh. It also reminded me of Ada Limon's poem A New National Anthem. (To bring it full circle). And I am likewise an avid listener of On Being!!!
Awesome connections. Full circle, for sure. 😊Trevor’s jokes about national anthems were pretty great. I like when someone got mad at him for singing a national anthem that wasn’t his and he compared it to singing Beyoncé’s “All the Single Ladies”
The Costco jokes are pretty good and appreciated as I have a love/hate relationship with Costco. I love that I’m saving so much on olive oil and lotion, but I kind of hate going there but then when I’m there I don’t really hate it- maybe I just think I should.
I have a love love relationship with Costco lol. But yes, I have guilt about this! I’m like “shouldn’t I hate this huge ugly (American) building?” And also, the clothes section is kind of depressing. But! His jokes about people really giving up on caring when they wear Costco pants made me laugh so hard. I definitely buy me some pants there haha. Anyway, happy to compare Sheng Wang notes. I love that special 🫶🏽
Same on the clothes jokes. Good stuff, and definitely a new stage of life. I too have also bought the pants. I saw someone with a Kirkland hoodie the other day and was curious if it was ironic or not.
“when your expectations are high, prepare yourself to be disappointed”--yes, my family says this about movies! If we go in with too high expectations, the movie will never measure up 😂
Funny, I remember Jess sharing a rough draft with us and talking about working things out and I thought that was amazing. I was moved by how genuine he was, but I don’t remember him talking about play in writing - it may have been cause I was manning the entry door- so thank you for sharing that. I saw you wrote about play earlier this month too when I was linking to your site- I caught up on my reading a little- so not only did I steal your ticket, I guess I kinda stole your idea. Still friends?
Poetry lives here!
Ooooh, Mary, I love the ideas in your poem, that the making of beauty took months and months. Thanks for a Poetry Month post! I missed the entire month as well. :) Love this!
Thanks for reading! I double posted accidentally.🙃I was reminded of another poem this morning that made me think of both your interview and my poem, the concept of noticing the beautiful world around us and being grateful for a seat at the table. I’m sharing a link to Mary Oliver’s “Invitation,” and to James Crews reading the poem on the podcast, which was a tribute to her and to poetry. https://wordsfortheyear.com/2017/08/28/invitation-by-mary-oliver/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-one-you-feed/id792555885?i=1000611041341
You know I love this post Mary! So jealous of your workshop with Ada Limon- her On Being episode was definitely one of my favorites of late.
Thanks for reading! It was such a good interview. 😊
I love your poem and this post, and not just because you talk about me multiple times. The concept of play when writing is so important. Jess Walter said the same thing when he spoke at our school back in January. That changed the game for me, creatively. Thanks for the Ada recap since some of us didn’t get a ticket. 😀
I found some time to play with my watercolors and checked a book out of this book out of the library https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11773036 ...spent a fun 30 minutes drawing cats! The first exercise....and last week also did the second exercise as well--blind contour drawing of a giraffe. No expectations, just fun!
Sherri, I’m so glad you are painting. Learning something new or going deeper in something we love is such a gift. So glad you found us here!
Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists is the title. 🙂
Thank you for your beautiful writing.
My niece once gifted me a poem. She sent an email that said, “ I wrote this and I think I kind of wrote it for you.” The poem tells the story of baby birds leaving their nest one by one because it was time. In my deep grief back then, when I was still numb and lost, I thanked my niece but didn’t say much else. Now I am nearing the one year mark since my husband’s death, and rereading it I will say that you did write it for me. Though I still feel lost at times in this journey of becoming, I can receive the poem fully and gratefully with a clearer mind and an open heart.
In the last verse of the poem, my niece writes that she’s thinking of me in my grief and wonders if there’s something for me to learn here. There is-she knew it before me. Her words gave me hope and validated who I am, who I’ve always been, and who I will be on my journey of becoming in the face of this loss. To feel seen, to know I am loved, was the greatest gift I could have received at that time. You were right- I found out that I do know how to fly after all. Thank you.
Thanks for being here in this space and being vulnerable. Thanks for sharing about your niece - my aunt is pretty brave and good with words. 🤗 And thanks for the reminder of getting to watch those baby birds take flight. It’s pretty cool to watch someone take flight.
I was also lucky enough to get to go to Trevor Noah last week, and his jokes about the national anthem definitely made me laugh. It also reminded me of Ada Limon's poem A New National Anthem. (To bring it full circle). And I am likewise an avid listener of On Being!!!
Awesome connections. Full circle, for sure. 😊Trevor’s jokes about national anthems were pretty great. I like when someone got mad at him for singing a national anthem that wasn’t his and he compared it to singing Beyoncé’s “All the Single Ladies”
Wonderful post and poem! I need to go back and read all of this again slowly. I felt seen repeatedly! Thank you.
Yay! So glad. I’m honored that you plan to give it a slow read. I’d love to hear more about your connections.
I am obsessed with Sheng Wang’s Costco jokes!! Obsessed. That lotion bottle but is hilarious too
The Costco jokes are pretty good and appreciated as I have a love/hate relationship with Costco. I love that I’m saving so much on olive oil and lotion, but I kind of hate going there but then when I’m there I don’t really hate it- maybe I just think I should.
I have a love love relationship with Costco lol. But yes, I have guilt about this! I’m like “shouldn’t I hate this huge ugly (American) building?” And also, the clothes section is kind of depressing. But! His jokes about people really giving up on caring when they wear Costco pants made me laugh so hard. I definitely buy me some pants there haha. Anyway, happy to compare Sheng Wang notes. I love that special 🫶🏽
Same on the clothes jokes. Good stuff, and definitely a new stage of life. I too have also bought the pants. I saw someone with a Kirkland hoodie the other day and was curious if it was ironic or not.
Haha a Kirkland hoodie is really doubling down on a new stage of life 😹
“when your expectations are high, prepare yourself to be disappointed”--yes, my family says this about movies! If we go in with too high expectations, the movie will never measure up 😂
Beautiful amaryllis!
Yes! Exactly. The first Harry Potter movie! What else?
Ooh. That would make a really good garden sign.
Funny, I remember Jess sharing a rough draft with us and talking about working things out and I thought that was amazing. I was moved by how genuine he was, but I don’t remember him talking about play in writing - it may have been cause I was manning the entry door- so thank you for sharing that. I saw you wrote about play earlier this month too when I was linking to your site- I caught up on my reading a little- so not only did I steal your ticket, I guess I kinda stole your idea. Still friends?