C-19 Reflection #38: Poetry

C-19 Resource (#38)

Theme: Poetry 

 Reflection:

Not everyone appreciates or gets poetry, and I often wonder to myself if I really get poetry. So I usually keep poems to myself and just try to ponder them, waiting to see if something breaks into me. When that happens, I still find myself reluctant to share. 

But I have a few friends who read and write poetry with affection and skill. They seem to believe that I will be warmed when I come to embrace their passion to imagine through the written verse. Because they are goodpeople who I admire and in whose lives I recognize the power of the poet to form readers, I remain vigilant when they send poems along just in case one particular onetakes a hold. Like this one.

A Poem for a Time Like This

This is the time to be slow,

Lie low to the wall

Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let

The wire brush of doubt

Scrape from your heart

All sense of yourself

And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,

Time will come good;

And you will find your feet

Again on fresh pastures of promise,

Where the air will be kind

And blushed with beginning.

                            —John O’Donohue