The Shed Notebook: National Poetry Month: "A Friend Is A Treasure"

Today I want to honor my friends with this poem. I am blessed with old friends, new friends, family that are friends, work friends, and neighbor friends. When I need a friend, someone is always there. 

A Friend is a Treasure

by Jean Kyler McManus

A friend is someone we turn to,
When our spirits need a lift,
A friend is someone we treasure,
For true friendship is a gift.

A friend is someone we laugh with,
Over little personal things,
A friend is someone we're serious with,
In facing whatever life brings.

A friend is someone who fills our lives,
With beauty and joy and grace.
And makes the world that we live in
A better and happier place!

The Shed Notebook: National Poetry Month: "Kindness"

 

 I can't celebrate National Poetry Month without posting this poem. Each time I read it, it speaks to me in yet another way.  The line I love this time is  "Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore"  Kindness makes sense to me.  How does it speak to you? 

Kindness

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

From Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye.

The Shed Notebook: National Poetry Month: Remember Me

Yesterday  I learned of the death of a former student. My prayers go out to the family and I hope these words are of some comfort to everyone that loved him.

Remember Me

by Anthony Dowson

Speak of me as you have always done.
Remember the good times, laughter, and fun.

Share the happy memories we've made.
Do not let them wither or fade.

I'll be with you in the summer's sun
And when the winter's chill has come.

I'll be the voice that whispers in the breeze.
I'm peaceful now, put your mind at ease.

I've rested my eyes and gone to sleep,
But memories we've shared are yours to keep.

Sometimes our final days may be a test,
But remember me when I was at my best.

Although things may not be the same,
Don't be afraid to use my name.

Let your sorrow last for just a while.
Comfort each other and try to smile.

I've lived a life filled with joy and fun.
Live on now, make me proud of what you'll become.

The Shed Notebook: A Poem for the Day: "In the End We Are All Light"

I revisited a whole collection of blog posts this morning to remind me of the poems I have posted during National Poetry Month. I have often posted the same poems multiple times. This is one of them. A treasure.

In The End We Are All Light

I love how old men carry purses for their wives,
those stiff light beige or navy wedge-shaped bags
that match the women’s pumps,
with small gold clasps that click open and shut.
The men drowse off in medical center waiting rooms,
with bags perched in their laps like big tame birds
too worn to flap away. Within, the wives slowly undress,
put on the thin white robes, consult, come out
and wake the husbands dreaming openmouthed.

And when they both rise up
to take their constitutional,
walk up and down the block, her arms are free as air,
his right hand dangles down.

So I, desiring to shed this skin
for some light silken one,
will tell my husband, “Here, hold this,”
and watch him amble off into the mall among the shining
cans of motor oil, my leather bag
slung over his massive shoulder bone,
so prettily slender-waisted, so forgiving of the ways
we hold each other down, that watching him
I see how men love women, and women men,
and how the burden of the other comes to be
light as a feather blown, more quickly vanishing.

-Liz Rosenberg

The Shed Notebook: Ten Things That Make Me Feel Happy All The Time

"The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest 

in all the details of daily life." William Morris

This quote really spoke to me today. When I am feeling down or overwhelmed, it is the details of daily life that fill me with happiness. I am not a fan of expensive jewelery, exotic trips, or fancy cars. I don't know what I would do with a closet full of Jimmy Choos and Gucci bags. I don't even have the closet space. Nope, the things that make me feel happy are the things I surround myself with in my daily life. Here is the list:

1. Everett. My husband takes the details of daily life and makes them special any day of the year.

2. My dogs. My dogs bring me pleasure when they jump up to tell me to get out of bed, when they lay at my feet when I am sad, or when they look at me like I am the most important person in the world.

3. My camera. Recently I reviewed over 20,000 pictures I have taken since I had digital cameras. Now that made me happy. So many images, so many memories.
4. Our cats. Each cat is unique in personality and looks, but they make evenings special at our house.

5. Fresh flowers. There is nothing like a pretty bouquet to add happiness to a day.

6. My gardens.  Seeing roses, sunflowers, marigolds, cosmos, and more come to life in the summer is pure happiness.
7. Books. Whether it is my Bible, a new novel from the library, a cookbook, or a how-to book it is happiness.
8. Friends. Childhood friends or recent friends, they all bring me happiness.

9. Family. Each of them adds to the true secret of happiness.
10. My little house. My little green house with the red trim is my ultimate happy place. I view beautiful sunsets from the front porch. I can sit by a warm fire in the winter. I stand in the kitchen and look out at beautiful gardens three seasons out of the year, and I can provide meals to nourish the souls of family and friends.

Daily Peace: Have Patience

"Have patience with all things but first with yourself.
Never confuse your mistakes with your value
as a human being.  "
- St. Francis De Sales

This was my message in my "Daily Peace" book today. It was one I needed to read. Lately I have been so impatient with myself. I have also been hard on myself for silly mistakes I have made. I have been discouraged with myself because I have set too high of goals for myself.  I need to find patience and peace within myself even when I don't reach my goals or even when I make silly mistakes. After all, I am human. Repeat to self, I am human.