Lines for Winter by Mark Strand

 

Tell yourself

as it gets cold and gray falls from the air

that you will go on

walking, hearing

the same tune no matter where

you find yourself—

inside the dome of dark

or under the cracking white

of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.

Tonight as it gets cold

tell yourself

what you know which is nothing

but the tune your bones play

as you keep going. And you will be able

for once to lie down under the small fire

of winter stars.

And if it happens that you cannot

go on or turn back

and you find yourself

where you will be at the end,

tell yourself

in that final flowing of cold through your limbs

that you love what you are.

 

The Light Continues

Every evening, an hour before 
the sun goes down, I walk toward
its light, wanting to be altered.
Always in quiet, the air still.
Walking up the straight empty road
and then back. When the sun
is gone, the light continues
high up in the sky for a while.
When I return, the moon is there. 
Like a changing of the guard.
I don’t expect the light 
to save me, but I do believe
in the ritual. I believe
I am being born a second time
in this very plain way.

Linda Gregg

Variation on a Theme by Elizabeth Bishop by John Murillo

 

Start with loss. Lose everything. Then lose it all again.  
Lose a good woman on a bad day. Find a better woman, 
then lose five friends chasing her. Learn to lose as if 
your life depended on it. Learn that your life depends on it.
Learn it like karate, like riding a bike. Learn it, master it.
Lose money, lose time, lose your natural mind.
Get left behind, then learn to leave others. Lose and
lose again. Measure a father’s coffin against a cousin’s 
crashing T-cells. Kiss your sister through prison glass.  
Know why your woman’s not answering her phone.
Lose sleep. Lose religion. Lose your wallet in El Segundo.  
Open your window. Listen: the last slow notes
of a Donny Hathaway song. A child crying. Listen:  
A drunk man is cussing out the moon. He sounds like 
your dead uncle, who, before he left, lost a leg 
to sugar. Shame. Learn what’s given can be taken; 
what can be taken, will. This you can bet on without 
losing. Sure as nightfall and an empty bed. Lose
and lose again. Lose until it’s second nature. Losing
farther, losing faster. Lean out your open window, listen:
The child is laughing now. No, it’s the drunk man again
in the street, losing his voice, suffering each invisible star. 

 

Jon Stewart On Dave Chappelle, Kyrie Irving, And Kanye West

Gratitude: November 9, 2022

 1. Van Leeuwen Earl Grey

2. Salute

May happiness
pursue you,

catch you
often, and,

should it
lose you,

be waiting
ahead, making

a clearing
for you 

A.R. Ammons

3. Redemption Song

Gratitude: November 1,, 2022

1. Yoga morning. Spinning evening. My body is so blissed out.

2. Finally partook in Taco Tuesday. Asadero does yummy carne asada. 

3  A few precious minutes in The Book Cellar brought The Hurting Kind and Against Nostalgia. Seriously feeling that last line. 

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.