Fourth Annual St. Brigid's Silent Poetry Reading

It's time again for the St. Brigid's Day Silent Poetry Reading, so here is my offering, a timely piece by Jane Kenyon:

February: Thinking of Flowers


Now wind torments the field,
turning the white surface back
on itself, back and back on itself,
like an animal licking a wound.

Nothing but white -- the air, the light;
only on brown milkweed pod
bobbing in the gully, smallest
brown boat on the immense tide.

A single green sprouting thing
would restore me....

Then think of the tall delphinium,
swaying, or the bee when it comes
to the tongue of the burgundy lily.

Naomi Shihab Nye

I saw her read tonight, and I am so glad I went, despite the rain and the dark and the crowded auditorium. I took my sock knitting with me to take the edge off my anxiety while I waited for the program to begin.

I put the needles down once the house lights were lowered, and extricated my Moleskine and a pen so that I could jot quotes and book titles and poem fragments of my own as she spoke. The more I am enjoying the reader, the more notes I take. We gave her a standing ovation when she had finished, and rightfully so.

I hadn't encountered Naomi Shihab Nye or her work before (except that she was originally scheduled to speak here in October), and I didn't have funds to buy books tonight, but I definitely want to spend some time reading her as soon as possible.

I love living in a town in which there is access to writers of this caliber.