Thursday, March 23, 2023

Poetry Friday: "Revival" by Luci Shaw


"What makes a poet a poet? 
The slender antenna of awareness 
combing the air for messages." 


In "Revival" Luci Shaw anticipates spring and, like Shaw, I'm here for it. 



Revival
by Luci Shaw

March. I am beginning
to anticipate a thaw. Early mornings
the earth, old unbeliever, is still crusted with frost
where the moles have nosed up their
cold castings, and the ground cover
in shadow under the cedars hasn't softened
for months, fogs layering their slow, complicated ice
around foliage and stem
night by night,
....
(Read the rest here.) 

~~~~~~~~~~



16 comments:

Denise Krebs said...

I love that light, as a preacher of good news. Beautiful, Karen!

elli said...

Lovely poem 🤗 I am not *quite* anticipating Spring thaws, just yet! Here in the frozen tundra we are apparently expecting a foot of snow for the Annunciation ...❄️🕊❄️

Carol Varsalona said...

Spring was here yesterday with 81-degree temperature and today with grayness, rainstorms, and damp weather. I am also ready like the preacher to:
"beckon green
out of gray". Thanks for the introduction to a new poet, Karen.

jama said...

What a great poem! Luci Shaw is new to me -- love your opening quote, too.

Rose Cappelli said...

What a beautiful poem, Karen. Thanks for introducing me to Lucy Shaw. And I love her definition of what a poet is.

Sarah Grace Tuttle said...

These are lovely-- so great to read poems from a poet I've never met before. Thank you for sharing!

Linda B said...

Love "combing the air for messages" & the poem, wow! I printed it out to hang up, maybe every March? Thanks, Karen, love "and my hand up, too".

Mary Lee said...

My hand is up, too! The single bee (I saw one weeks ago on the hellebore blooms) and the crocuses spoke my spring love language.

Karen Edmisten said...

So many hands up! :D And so many varying weather reports, lol.

So happy to introduce many of you to Luci Shaw. She and Madeleine L'Engle were close friends and L'Engle wrote a book about their friendship, FRIENDS FOR THE JOURNEY, which I read a long time ago. Need to pull that one off the shelf again.

Patricia Franz said...

Karen, I love the first stanza and how it holds us in the throes of still-winter and gives us time to notice its details...just before that preacher-light transforms everything around us. I'm living in the first stanza still (and loving it).

laurasalas said...

Wow. "Old unbeliever." And all those fabulous concrete nouns. What an earthy poem--it FEELS like a northern spring. Thanks, Karen!

Bridget Magee said...

Alleluia!

Anastasia Suen said...

Wow! That opening poem says it all! Thanks for sharing it. :-)

Robyn Hood Black said...

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing, Karen, and Happy Spring to you!

Karen Edmisten said...

I'm feeling the joys of spring throughout the combox. :) Happy to spread the joy!

Jone MacCulloch said...

I love the Ted Kooser poem you shared. Thanks for hosting.