The Sea Accepts All Rivers & other poems - Softcover

Brown, Judy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1490768696 ISBN 13: 9781490768694

Publisher: Trafford, 2016

Synopsis

"Deeply moving . . . complex emotions and ideas are handled with disarming simplicity" John W. Gardner, Former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. "This is a book of wisdom in the form of poems, useful, yet delightful and even sometimes surprising. A single poem can shift thinking so everything is different from then on" Carol Pearson, author of The Hero Within. "Judy's work is rooted in the shared soil of our lives, and her images help us understand how lovely and full of promise our common ground is. You hold a feast of insight in your hands. Read it and be nourished." Parker J. Palmer, author of Let Your Life Speak and A Hidden Wholeness.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Sea Accepts All Rivers & Other Poems

By Judy Brown

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2016 Judy Brown
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-6869-4

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, ix, 
PREFACE, xi, 
NOTICING, 
Beginnings, 3, 
Wooden Boats, 4, 
Dead, 6, 
Seeing Complexity, 8, 
Sorrow, 9, 
Hoarding Pain, 10, 
Circles, 12, 
The Other Shoe, 13, 
Connection, 14, 
Traps, 16, 
Just Human, 17, 
Invisible, 19, 
Trough, 20, 
Our Music, 22, 
Stop It, 23, 
The Universe Says, 25, 
Underneath the Porch, 28, 
Again, 29, 
CREATING SPACE, 
Emptiness Invites, 33, 
Fire, 34, 
To the People In My Lost Calendar, 36, 
Sabbatical, 37, 
Lost File, 39, 
The Walk, 40, 
The Recluse, 41, 
Alone, 42, 
Leadership Like Symphonies, 43, 
Fishing, 44, 
The Arborist, 45, 
Ceremonies, 46, 
Vast Sky, 48, 
Rest, 49, 
Snow Days, 50, 
SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES, 
When Did the Weather Shift?, 55, 
Dialogue and Measurement, 56, 
Invitation, 57, 
Startings and Endings, 59, 
Bridges, 61, 
If You Were Sick, 62, 
Shouting Yes, 65, 
Airborne, 66, 
Which It? Which They?, 67, 
Time, 68, 
Apple Wood, 69, 
Sometimes, 71, 
Moth, 72, 
The Sea Accepts All Rivers, 73, 
Companion, 75, 
SPEAKING TRUTH, 
Luminescence, 79, 
Stop Dancing, 80, 
Now, 81, 
Easier, 82, 
Truth, 83, 
Answer, 84, 
Sign, 86, 
Synchronicity, 87, 
Garden, 89, 
Crosswise, 91, 
Stories, 92, 
Moved, 94, 
Trapeze, 95, 
Progress, 97, 
Heard, 99, 
Somewhere, 100, 

CHAPTER 1

NOTICING

BEGINNINGS


* * *

Beginnings are gentle
if we let them be
not brass bands
nor gongs of certainty
but flute sounds. ...
quiet questioning
soft inquiry.

    WOODEN BOATS


    * * *

    I have a brother who builds wooden boats,
    who knows precisely how a board
    can bend or turn, steamed just exactly
    soft enough so he, with help of friends,
    can shape it to the hull.

    The knowledge lies as much
    within his sure hands on the plane
    as in his head;
    it lies in love of wood and grain,
    a rough hand resting on the satin
  of the finished deck.

    Is there within us each
    such artistry forgotten
    in the cruder tasks
    the world requires of us,
    the faster modern work
    that we have
    turned our lives to do?

    Could we return to more of craft
    within our lives,
    and feel the way the grain of wood runs true,
    by letting our hands linger
    on the product of our artistry?

    Could we recall what we have known
    but have forgotten,
    finding gifts within ourselves,
    each other too,
    and thus transform a world
    as he and his frie

Edition details

• Publisher: Trafford
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1490768696
• ISBN 13: 9781490768694
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 114