Postcard From My Quest

Hi Friends!

I hope you are having a summer full of wonder!

All is well here. Enjoying daily adventures with my family; relishing joy and peace. I'm scheduled to have my second foot surgery soon. Looking forward to getting that out of the way and moving forward to a stronger, healthier future.

More to come from Classical Quest!

Longer letter later! :-)

Love,
A

the peonies are getting ready to break my heart

Dear Friend,

Lately I've been getting to know the poetry of Mary Oliver. I'm really enjoying what I've found so far.

Today I was very excited to discover she wrote a poem about my favorite flower!

Peonies 
by Mary Oliver

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
   to break my heart
     as the sun rises,
        as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open--
   pools of lace,
      white and pink--
       and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
    into the curls,
      craving the sweet sap,
        taking it away

to their dark, underground cities--
   and all day
      under the shifty wind,
       as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
   and tip their fragrance to the air,
     and rise,
       their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
    gladly and lightly,
      and there it is again--
        beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
    Do you love this world?
      Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
       Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
   and softly,
      and exclaiming of their dearness,
       fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
    their eagerness
      to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
        nothing, forever?






From New and Selected Poems (Beacon Press) 

And to answer, I would say -- Yes. Yes, I do.

Taking pictures of my flowers before they become "nothing forever" helps ease the loss.  

My peonies will be blooming soon!

Peace & Joy,

Adriana

Ascending : Guest Post By Jeannie Prinsen

Dear Friend,

I'm delighted to share a poem with you today! It was written by my friend Jeannie Prinsen. Jeannie is an online writing instructor at Queen's University. She shares many insightful reflections on her blog Little House on the Circle. 

+ + +

The experience that inspired this poem took place a couple of years ago in Prince Edward Island (where I was born and where my family still goes every summer).  We  had arrived at my parents' place earlier that day, and I was taking an evening walk.  There is something about the quiet of the surroundings and the beauty of the sky there, especially at sunset, that always makes me feel peaceful.  But the cloud of starlings -- something I don't think I'd ever seen before -- added a different dimension to this walk. I was fascinated by their swooping formations and the way they crowded into a tree, chattering loudly, and then suddenly lifted off as one.  This poem tries to capture the sight, sound, and feeling of that experience.

ascending

shape-shifting black

ellipses thrill the evening sky

a thousand starlings

    swirl

             swoop

                      dive

then settle

turning a sun-kindled apple tree

into a quivering

dappling

murmur

ation

each leaf and twig

pulsing with their over

lapping voices

suddenly

they rise in a shush of underlit wings

like flakes 

of fire

showering

upward

like fallen stars returning

to heaven

and I watch

wistful

wondering

how it would feel

to fly

my own wings touched with the light

of day's golden 

end

In case you missed it: Jeannie and I did another photo/poem collaboration earlier this year. You can read it here.

poem cJeannie Prinsen 2013
please do not reproduce without author permission