Brian Doyle was a luminous writer who died from a brain tumor in 2017 at the age of 60, an inexplicable injustice in this world if ever there was one.
According to this obituary in The Beacon, after he received his diagnosis, he said, “I’ll hear all laughter. Be tender to each other. Be more tender than you were yesterday, that’s what I would like. You want to help me? Be tender and laugh.”
God
by Brian Doyle
By purest chance I was out in our street when the kindergarten
Bus mumbled past going slow and I looked up just as all seven
Kids on my side of the bus looked at me and I grinned and they
Lit up and all this crap about God being dead and where is God
And who owns God and who hears God better than whom is the
Most egregiously stupid crap imaginable because if you want to
See God and have God see you and have this mutual perception
Be completely untrammeled by blather and greed and comment,
Go stand in the street as the kindergarten bus murmurs past. I’m
I delight in every ounce of his work (novels, essays, poems, and prose poems he called proems) and I’m on a mission to be a Brian Doyle completist. I corresponded with him only once, when I was seeking permission from Portland magazine (which he edited for many years) to reprint a story excerpt in one of my books. His emails were as charming as everything else of his I’ve ever read.
This week, because the magic of children has been on my mind, because children are pure and holy and dinosaur-loving vessels who deserve to be protected and flooded with love, I’m sharing this one, which I'd never read before today and just now seredipitously stumbled upon. I’d like to think Brian had something to do with that.
God is in the Kindergartener, is the Kindergartener. What a luminous and spot-on thought.
God
by Brian Doyle
By purest chance I was out in our street when the kindergarten
Bus mumbled past going slow and I looked up just as all seven
Kids on my side of the bus looked at me and I grinned and they
Lit up and all this crap about God being dead and where is God
And who owns God and who hears God better than whom is the
Most egregiously stupid crap imaginable because if you want to
See God and have God see you and have this mutual perception
Be completely untrammeled by blather and greed and comment,
Go stand in the street as the kindergarten bus murmurs past. I’m
Not kidding and this is not a metaphor. I am completely serious.
….
(Read the rest here.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
21 comments:
Ah, Karen, thank you for introducing me to Brian Doyle. What a poem about God. Yes, indeed--God is in the kindergartener and is a kindergartener. Here's to protecting the children, all of them! Thank you for this Karen.
Wow... That brought me to tears. What a powerful poem. Thank you for sharing this poet with us. I especially loved his line:
"Of course God would wear a brilliantly colored tall dinosaur hat!
If you were the Imagination that dreamed up everything that ever
Was in this blistering perfect terrible world, wouldn’t you wear a
Hat celebrating some of the wildest most amazing developments?
God bless all the little children all over the world. It's really so simple isn't it? God is love and we need more of both. Happy Valentine's Day.
* Denise, it’s a pleasure to share Doyle’s work — it’s like spreading sunlight and oxygen.
* Cathy, those line, right?? It really is, or should be, so simple.
Sigh. Love Doyle's work and really need to read much more of it! Thanks for sharing this one; so much truth about the purity of children, who by their age are more fresh from/closer to God/heaven than the rest of us. Also appreciated this poem since dear friend Jessica Swaim recently passed away (it was she who first introduced me to Doyle, gifting me with a couple of his books).
Oh, Karen, you never fail to show me how good people are if we only look for them, as you have shown us the love and delight of Brian Doyle's words today. Children, with the immigration news and the horrible thought of those altered by Epstein, need to be protected always. Thank you!
Hi Karen, wow - you've truly a deep connection with this fascinating poet's trajectory, wich I appreciate knowing about - another great creative writer (& editor) new to me. Appreciations. I feel serendipity is the sweet convergence or return of connections from before - so uplifting a detail to include. And I luv the 7 Kindergarten heads moment in his poem. Hoping you have a sweet&serene weekend. your fan, JAN
Ah, Brian Doyle!! Wonderful, yes. Thank you, Karen 💖
Thank you for sharing such a passionate poem. Yes God is in the kindergartners! I saw God in second graders this week as I taught a workshop. These youngest ones can show us the imagination of God. Thanks!
* Jama, I'm so sorry about Jessica. Hugs to you, and may she rest in peace. How lovely that she introduced you to Brian Doyle. What have you read?
* Linda, yes, he was definitely one of the good ones. ❤️
* Jan, yes, I love those seven Kindergarten heads too! So happy to share Doyle's work.
* elli, my pleasure, always!
* Margaret, yes to God in the second graders! 🤩
Karen, this poem is so profound in such an accessible and direct way. Of course we see God in children and in random beauty. Thanks for sharing Brian Doyle.
Tank you for this lovely Valentine gift, Karen.
Just got distracted by reading Brian Doyle's other poems in The Christian Century. What a treat! Thanks, Karen :) xo
Be tender and laugh. Thank you. xo
Love love love Brian Doyle's writing. This was perfect. Thank you, Karen.
This is the kind of religion and religious poetry that I can get behind! Thank you so much for sharing it and for introducing me to Brian Doyle. I'll definitely be seeking out more of his work. Love this so much!
Jan's post has me determined to find more hearts in the wild, and now yours will have me looking for God. I'm pretty sure I heard him this morning in the voice of the wren singing on the fence by my window.
Yes to Brian Doyle. I've only read some of his work, but it's so wonderful!
* Janice, all of Doyle's work is so accessible and so good!
* Rose, my pleasure, and happy Valentine's Day!
* Tabatha, I find that he is always a treat. ❤️
* Marcie, I can't rave about him enough. What a huge heart he had.
* Irene, yes, wise and tender advice.
* Patricia, he's the best.
* Molly, enjoy the exploration!
* Mary Lee, I definitely think a wren is full of God. ❤️
What a beautiful poem. The bus mumbling along is perfect, too.
So perfect and true. Thank you, Karen, for this heartful post this week and for your commitment to explore and share Brian Doyle's work. (This poem reminds me of Wordsworth's lines, which go something like this - 'Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home - Heaven lies about us in our infancy " - from the Intimations Ode.
Karen, thank you for Doyle's wonderful poem about our God. These lines, God was six/Girls and one boy with a bright green and purple stegosaurus hat/blistering perfect terrible world, speaks volumes. This poem made my Sunday a day of wonder with the Lord.
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