Welcome to our Poetry Party #41!
I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections. Add them in the comments section and a link to your blog (if you have one). Make sure to check the comments for new poems added and I encourage you to leave encouraging comments for each other either here or at the poet’s own blog.
Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog if you have one and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post and full credit is given – © Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts)
Book Giveaway!
As a special Thanksgiving to you, my wonderful readers, I also have several books to give away this week – books which somehow I ended up with two copies of each (please look up the titles online for more details). If you’d like one of the books, please post your gratitude poem or list in the comments (see theme below) plus a note of which title you’d like to have. I will cross the titles off this list as they’re claimed, but please look through previous comments in case I haven’t gotten back to my computer since someone claimed one. These are first-come, first-served. All I ask is that in the coming days you extend the generosity to someone else in your life.
The Everday Work of Art by Eric Booth
Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspirations from Working Artists by Rice Freeman-Zachery
Creative Awakenings: Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art by Sheri Gaynor
Entering the Temple of Dreams: Jewish Prayers, Movements, and Meditations for the End of Day by Tamar Frankiel & Judy Greenfeld
Praying with the Body by Roy DeLeon
The Inferno of Dante translated by Robert Pinsky
All the books have now been claimed – but please keep contributing your wonderful poems!
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Poetry Party Theme: Expanding the Heart in Gratitude
In the United States, this is of course the week of our Thanksgiving feasts. I decided to host a Poetry Party here even though I anticipate smaller numbers attending as people travel and cook and clean and prepare. But I am keeping the invitation simple so that you might be able to stop by even briefly to express your gratitude through the beauty of poetic language.
So my invitation this week has two simple suggestions:
1) write a haiku (or several) that captures the essence of a heart-expanding moment for you, something in the course of ordinary, everyday life
or
2) make a list of 5 simple, everday things for which you are grateful.
You are, of course, welcome to write a longer poem as well about the ordinary things which make your heart sing and overflow.
(Photo taken at a fountain in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City)
** The February 22-April 4, 2010 session of Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Contemplative Practice is now FULL! I will be adding a second session later today to run concurrently with the second session of Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist from April 12-May 23, 2010. **
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts
32 Responses
Receive Your Blessings
Maple leaf hand rests on frozen earth
palm up
to receive her blessings
High limbs of the fir tree hold
eagles’ nest
giant cup, empty
to receive her blessings
Clamshell chalice
her whiteness awaits
silver tide
to receive her blessings
Pores of our skin
open tiny mouths
to receive their blessings
Unfold the layers of your heart
Receive your blessings
Receive your blessings
Receive Your Blessings
Maple leaf hand rests on frozen earth
palm up
to receive her blessings
High limbs of the fir tree hold
eagles’ nest
giant cup, empty
to receive her blessings
Clamshell chalice
her whiteness awaits
silver tide
to receive her blessings
Pores of our skin
open their tiny mouths
to receive their blessings
Unfold the layers of your heart
Receive your blessings
Receive your blessings
My litany of gratitude is here; at my blog it includes photos
Family ~ at our Thanksgiving Table this year the hands of many were gathered: my parents, my daughters, myself, and the hands of my grandparents who had washed and used the tablecloth, china and silver that graced our table, and the hands of the hundreds who planted the seeds, tended the soil, harvested the produce, cared for and nurtured the poultry, stocked the shelves, and bagged the groceries of all the food we enjoyed. Oh to be blessed by so many hands!
Furry family members ~ life is simply richer by their presence in our lives and home!
Friends ~ near and far, young and old, of just recently and from many years ago, they also enrich our lives!
Faith ~ ever expanding and stretching, grounded and centered, unknown and steadfast!
Food ~ especially that which is grown locally and organically (and I am pleased to add food which is grown by my future son-in-law!), gift of our planet, feast for our senses, delight on our tables!
Indeed I am grateful for what I have. May you be so blessed as well
Soft fog shroud
Tree tops piercing through
Crisp dawn rising
I went somewhere I didn’t expect this week.
It is a task I have put off
for years and years and
years longer than I should
but now I finally sit
surrounded by piles and piles of
books I want to want to keep
but I also know that,
as much as this one was read
the year my life fell apart,
and that one is from my friend,
and that each has a story
of how I found them
not all will stay.
So I pick each one up and
remember and decide
and the pile by the door grows
and the shelves become
sparser and neater
and I give thanks for the
stories I am recalling
and the new stories
whose space is now waiting
Before the words are spoken
I fill my lungs with air
My heart is overflowing
I sing “thank you” everywhere.
Thank you, Christine! I played in prose rather than poetry this time, but it was a wonderful experience; despite the fact I’ve been blogging alphabetical thanks every day this November, the reasons for gratitude and joy are countless.
http://desertspiritsfire.blogspot.com/2009/11/poetry-party-41.html
Tails wagging… nonstop
Kisses from the love of their hearts
you’re home again… with us.
Great blog. Informative and some lovely shots. I teach on a few Photography Holidays around the world and I’ll definitely be recommending this blog to my students who are always asking me about good photography websites!
sit
still
silence
sacred
surrender