Saturday, December 12, 2015

Deer on the Sidewalk


Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Anne Davis 773

we pass
I stop and look back
our eyes meet

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015




17 comments:

  1. I love knowing the story behind this poem. You inspire me to slow down and be more aware of my surroundings.

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  2. That moment -- frozen wonder -- is pretty amazing to experience ...

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    1. Love the very different kind of frozen wonder you shared today! Were you there?

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  3. I always wonder am I watching them or are they watching me.

    I must admit I'm always a bit fascinated with the way a writer can take one moment and share it in different ways. I'm thinking of how interesting it would be for your students to hear your story, see this haiku, read your narrative, and talk about how each changes the message for the reader.

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    1. Hmm...you've got my wheels turning! We are talking about structure and format for our nonfiction...this isn't exactly the same, but maybe enough different not to produce clones...hmmm...

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  4. I like the way these moments show an exquisite slice of a life lived well. As you say above, ML, one "must be present to win." You are a master at "being present" and, through your poetry, helping me learn to be present, too.

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  5. Here's my tanka today, in honor of my mom.


    tiny pits remember
    the dandelion’s
    lost seeds -
    across your chest
    a scar

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    1. What is lost (or taken) is never completely gone, is it?

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    2. Yes, not completely. But changed. And the difficult (and maybe the best) part of life is to find the beauty in the chipped, the scarred, the imperfectly mended, I think, wabi-sabi kind of thought.

      If you haven't seen THE SCHOOL OF LIFE: Wabi-Sabi, I highly recommend it. I think it's exactly what you do each day.

      Here's the link.
      https://goo.gl/0ChyKU

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    3. Thank you for this. I'll go back and watch it over and over (and explore THE SCHOOL OF LIFE when I've got more time).

      I offer this in response, Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins:


      GLORY be to God for dappled things—
      For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
      Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
      Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
      And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

      All things counter, original, spare, strange;
      Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
      He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
      Praise him.

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    4. Thank you! "All things counter, original, spare, strange" Yes!

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  6. Already quite a discussion going on this morning. Mary Lee, I love the line "must be present to win." Such an incredibly important reminder. And one I feel like I am forgetting way too often right now. I love how your poems capture those "being present" moments every single day. Did you really see a deer on the sidewalk? And I have loved PIED BEAUTY for many years.

    Steve, today I tried tanka. I have been thinking about that hinge line all week. I read the web page and lots of other stuff on the website you sent. I didn't quite pull it off, but I tried.

    The backstory behind this poem: We have two secretaries at our school. They are polar opposites. Our office manager is very, very, very competent. Super organized, detailed oriented, a master at budget and finance and forms, etc. She is also a card carrying member of the NRA and plans to vote for Donald Trump. Our other secretary is a Mexican American, married to a man from Morocco, and converted to Muslim. She is the sweetest person in the world. I wrote this poem for her. And sent it to her this morning.

    "To Our School Secretary"

    She brings kindness, grace
    organization, laughter to all.
    That covering on her head?
    Inconsequential, compared
    to love in her heart.

    (C) Carol Wilcox, 2015

    Or maybe…


    "To Our School Secretary"

    She brings kindness, grace
    organization, laughter to all.
    That covering on her head?
    Inconsequential, when she
    lives and loves so well.

    (C) Carol Wilcox, 2015

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    1. How wonderful that you sent her a poem, Carol! No one sends poems anymore...well...almost no one. I'm wondering what it must be like for her to be in the same office as someone who might have second thoughts about her in-laws. And, I wonder what it might be like for the office manager to hold her regard for her colleague in tension with her other beliefs. We are complicated beings.

      I think it's cool that you are playing with the tanka form. I see the hinge (or pivot, or ...?) between the upper and the lower...er...whatever they're called. I'd love to see more...and more...and more! Thank you!

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  7. First of all, this discussion is amazing. I am gathering new perspectives as I read each word. I feel privileged to be in the company of "wabi-sabi"type of writers who see the beauty in life, live in the moments, and distill feelings into small bites leading me deeper into the world of introspection.

    Mary Lee the deer standing frozen in time is exactly what my husband saw while in Syracuse during Thanksgiving. Perhaps, this is how he felt as his eyes met the largest deer he ever saw:

    four eyes boldly stare
    in morning light neither moves
    win - lose - life goes on
    ©Carol Varsalona, 2015

    Steve and Carol, keep on bringing those poems on-haikus, tankas, free verse....

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    1. I agree, Carol V. It's a privilege to share Mary Lee's space with her, and also Carol, Leigh Ann, Kevin, and you. I feel like she graciously invited us over for a dinner party that has now gone well into the night; I am too entralled to leave.

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  8. You can find my offering today at http://beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com/2015/12/into-fog.html.

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