Lyricality Blog
In My Extremity by Mary Moore Easter
The amazing thing about gratitude is how it demands a personal relationship with each of us. We can’t look at someone else’s life and know for certainty about what they can be, should be, are grateful. Here Mary Moore Easter brings an attitude of gratitude as an offering to a woman who stepped out of history, surprised her with her courageous story that was nearly lost, and inspired her to declare her a space in which we can honor her.
Thanksgiving by Toni Easterson
Welcome to Sunday Morning Lyricality, featuring a weekly song or poem by a Minnesota writer. Our current guest editor is Susan Thurston. Similar to last week’s poem where gratitude is a distilled awareness of the seemingly small things that together represent the totality of what we love, what we would miss, and what we await, this week’s...
Everything Waiting by Beverly Voldseth
Echoes of the word “waiting” from last week’s Sunday Morning Lyricality drift into this week’s offering, “Everything Waiting” by Beverly Voldseth. My mother would encourage me in times of trouble to “count your blessings.” That sort of listing is where this poem begins and then, as all good poems do, it opens out to include the unexpected and becomes an anthem for hope and the anticipation of receiving the possibilities offered in another day.
Quiet Gathering by Marcella Taylor
Marcella Taylor was a stalwart friend and confidante, taken far too soon by an aggressive cancer. During her amazing life she was a gifted teacher at St. Olaf College, and her breathtaking poetry garnered awards, grants, and residencies. Born in the Bahamas of Scottish, African, Cherokee, and Irish ancestry, she made her creative home in Minnesota. She published extensively in journals and anthologies including Poetry, Wisconsin Review, and Tampa Bay Review, and two volumes in addition to A Body Remembers: The Lost Daughter and Songs for the Arawak.
We come again to the cabin in the spring by Karen Herseth Wee
Susan Thurston, guest editor of “Sunday Morning Lyricality” for November 2020, uses “the lens named gratitude” for choosing this month’s poems. In “We come to the cabin in the spring” by Karen Herseth Wee, Susan says, “we are called to honor and celebrate the passage of time with all of its risks and rewards, and to declare the boundaries that save us and bring us together in the future.”
Retirement On Lake Time by Will Hecht
This poem, the last in October’s four-part series, typifies aging in a social context. Beyond personal attributes, life-course opportunities (present or not), or historic life-changing events, we now catch a glimpse of a shared age-related experience. In this prose poem, Will Hecht illustrates the cohesion of relationships and tradition, along with the topics and mood that generally pervades older adult conversations.
The Kontum Madonna by J. Vincent Hansen
This poem, written by J. Vincent Hansen – a veteran of the Viet Nam war, illustrates the direct impact of an historical event on an individual’s aging experience. In these lines the writer shares the memory of a military incident that resulted in a lifetime of personal regret and interrupted peace.
Join the Bodega: Alison Hendley In Conversation with “Face | Off,” by Su Hwang
Coming into conversation with “Face | Off” by Su Hwang, Alison Hendley unearths buried, devastating violence, reminding her of traumatic experiences in her own childhood. In doing this, she reveals the healing power of poetry.
Pun-sai by Ed Brekke-Kramer
Welcome to Sunday Morning Lyricality, featuring a weekly song or poem by a Minnesota writer. Our current guest editor is Judith Feenstra. With last week’s poem, we reviewed the aging process by exploring the fact that individual personal attributes determine, in part,...
Autumn Leaves Me Ablaze by Bernadine Lortis
This brief poem reflects an attitude of actively confronting age as opposed to passively accepting the disadvantages of growing old. Bernie’s poem, filled with imagery, invites the reader to give thought to their own approach to late-life stages.