Jeanne Lohmann: What the Day Gives

I love this poem. So beautiful, rich, and wise. I also deeply appreciate and resonate with Parker Palmer's reflections on how What the Day Gives touches his heart and his life. Blessed be. 🙏💗 Molly

Photo by Molly

 What the Day Gives

 

Suddenly, sun. Over my shoulder

in the middle of gray November
what I hoped to do comes back,
asking.

Across the street the fiery trees
hold onto their leaves,
red and gold in the final months
of this unfinished year,
they offer blazing riddles..

In the frozen fields of my life
there are no shortcuts to spring,
but stories of great birds in migration
carrying small ones on their backs,
predators flying next to warblers
they would, in a different season, eat.

Stunned by the astonishing mix in this uneasy world
that plunges in a single day from despair
to hope and back again, I commend my life
to Ruskin's difficult duty of delight,
and to that most beautiful form of courage,
to be happy.

 

― Jeanne Lohmann

 

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Parker Palmer's reflections on this poem and more...

 

Jeanne Lohmann is one of my favorite poets—I wish more people knew her work. She died in 2016 at age 93, and was writing to the end; she published her last collection in 2015. The few emails we exchanged during her final years were real treasures.

This poem—one to read slowly and savor—will give you an idea why I value her voice. The pictures she paints here take me hither and yon, reflecting all the contradictions of real life. In a world riddled with more fictions than I can count, I can’t get enough of reality!

I’ve known folks who bristle at Jeanne’s reference to Ruskin's "duty of delight," as in “Don’t tell ME I’m obliged to be delighted!” But this is a poem, not an advice column! For me, those words are a prompt to search my soul.

Amid the grimness of our era, I want to keep my heart open to the delights that come my way every day: the crescent moon hanging like a begging bowl in this morning's sky, the little girl I saw yesterday skipping down the sidewalk without a care in the world, the server at the Thai restaurant who lifts everyone’s spirits, the hot cup of coffee I’m sipping on this 32-degree morning. Taking all of it in helps with the heavy lifting we all have to do.

As Sojourner Truth said, “Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.” To which I say, amen.

[Jeanne Lohmann’s books are at https://tinyurl.com/bxbzz42h OR https://tinyurl.com/ar953phf. All ten of my books are at https://tinyurl.com/3ys2285c OR https://tinyurl.com/htjx6ju.]

 

― Parker J. Palmer