A Cup of Kindness Yet

Posted on December 31, 2022 by wordcloud9

I believe in the
religion of kindness.
– Jan Morris 

There is far too much cruelty in the world. My wish for 2023 is that we can start replacing it with kindness, toward each other, but also toward all the other living things, including our planet.

Naomi Shihab Nye is one of my all-time favorite poets, and “Kindness” is her poem that I love the most. I’ve posted it here at Flowers for Socrates many times, but its message is one that needs repeating.

So along with the “cup o’ kindness” of Robert Burns, please take the words of her poem into your heart for the new year.

May 2023 be a shining year for you and yours.

To read Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Kindness” click: Continue reading →

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2023 – The Power of One

Posted on December 29, 2022 by wordcloud9

by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

“I have learned that in each of us there burns
a flame of independence that must never be
allowed to go out. That as long as it exists
within us we cannot be destroyed.”
Bryce Courtenay – The Power of One

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot
do everything, but I can do something. And
because I cannot do everything, I will not
refuse to do the something I can do.”
– Edward Hale

To read Irene’s poem, “The Power of One” click:

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Burning the Old Year

Posted on December 28, 2022 by wordcloud9

Naomi Shihab Nye (1952 –  ), born in St. Louis, Missouri. Daughter of a father who came to America as a Palestinian refugee, and a born-in-America mother. “I grew up in St. Louis in a tiny house full of large music – Mahalia Jackson and Marian Anderson singing majestically on the stereo, my German-American mother fingering ‘The Lost Chord’ on the piano as golden light sank through trees, my Palestinian father trilling in Arabic in the shower each dawn.” During her teens, Shihab Nye has lived in Ramallah in Palestine, the Old City in Jerusalem, and now lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she earned her BA in English and world religions from Trinity University.

To read Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Burning the Old Year” click:

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TCS: What Way Does the Wind Come?

Posted on December 26, 2022 by wordcloud9

  Good Morning!

_____________________________

Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.

_____________________________

“Can you remember who you were, before
the world told you who you should be?”
― Charles Bukowski

“As wave is driven by wave
And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,
So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,
Always, forever and new. What was before
Is left behind; what never was is now;
And every passing moment is renewed.”
― Ovid, Metamorphoses

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Another Kind of Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2022 by wordcloud9

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

I wrote this poem because my part of America is often mocked for its lack of connection to the “traditional” Christmas of colder climes.

To read “Another Kind of Christmas” click:

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Posted in Holidays, Poetry | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A Holiday Greeting from Irene

Posted on December 22, 2022 by wordcloud9

To “open the card” click:

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Two Poems for Two Solstices

Posted on December 21, 2022 by wordcloud9

In the Northern Hemisphere, our Solstice is a celebration of beginning the turn of the long dark nights toward brighter days, a renewal of hope as one year nears its end and we await the promise of the year to come.

In the Southern Hemisphere, this Solstice is a celebration of the long days of summer, which brighten spirits even in times of uncertainty.

To read Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush” and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “In Summer” click:

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An Old-and-New Carol for Go Caroling Day

Posted on December 20, 2022 by wordcloud9

It is widely believed that caroling on Christmas started in 1223 at the church of St. Francis of Assisi. He thought that it was better to sing songs full of joy and fun during the holidays, instead of solemn hymns. He also started the live nativity scene. Caroling has been around even longer than Christmas itself, as it was a part of many earlier religious observances and practices.

The Friendly Beasts – illustration by Sharon McGinley

One of the oldest carols is “The Friendly Beasts” – which has come down from sometime in the 12th century from an unknown composer in France. The modern English lyrics, written by Robert Davis, were first published in 1934, though the lyrics were known before their publication.

To listen to “The Friendly Beasts” click:

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TCS: A Landscape Made of Obstacles

Posted on December 19, 2022 by wordcloud9

  Good Morning!

_____________________________

Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.

_____________________________

There comes a point where we need to
stop just pulling people out of the river.
We need to go upstream and find out
why they’re falling in. – Desmond Tutu

“The world is not a prison house,
but a kind of spiritual kindergarten,
where millions of bewildered infants are
trying to spell God with the wrong blocks.”
– Edwin Arlington Robinson

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In the Bleak Midwinter

Posted on December 15, 2022 by wordcloud9

__________________________

“I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.
A magical thing. And sweet to remember.
We are nearer to Spring than we were in September.
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.”

― Oliver Herford

__________________________

Irene will be back next week.

__________________________

In the meantime, some words and music for the season.

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December 5, 1830 – Christina Rossetti born, English poet and author; noted for her best-known poem, Goblin Market, and the poetry collection where it first appeared, Goblin Market and Other Poems, lauded by Gerald Manley Hopkins, Algernon Swinburne, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson; she was also outspoken against slavery, the exploitation of underage girls in prostitution, and cruelty to animals.

September 21, 1874 – Gustav Holst, born Gustavus Theodore von Holst was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed a large number of other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success.

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Christina Rossetti’s poem,“In the Bleak Midwinter” was originally published under the title ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1872, then set to music by Gustav Holst in 1906.

To read Christina Rossetti’s poem and hear it sung to the music of Gustav Holst, click:

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