Tag: acceptance

poetry appreciation, reflection

emptying the handbag of my mind

Sep 3, 2024 #acceptance, #Anthony Hopkins, #Berry, #despair, #fear, #Freud's Last session, #Frost, #grief, #Keats, #Ode on Melancholy, #pain, #poem, #poetry, #RObert Frost, #sorrow, #the peace of wild things, #wendell berry by Lucy Crispin

Last time I said I’d return to Keats and ‘glut[ting] thy sorrow on a morning rose‘, but I’ve got a bit distracted by a Frost poem. Maybe it’s not distraction, though. Perhaps I haven’t had enough coffee yet to remember why the poem joined up—in my head at least—with the Keats and, according to my notes, Frankenstein and the recent film Freud’s Last Session (!). Blimey. Perhaps best just read it before I say any more. Here’s ‘Acceptance‘ by Robert Frost.

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poetry appreciation

bear with me…

Feb 24, 2022 #acceptance, #amazement, #belief, #faith, #God, #god says yes to me, #Haught, #Kaylin Haught, #lovable, #love, #relief, #self acceptance, #wonder by Lucy Crispin

I realise I may be pushing it, offering you a poem containing reference to ‘god’ two weeks in a row. For me, though, both last week’s poem and this week’s can work simply in humanistic terms, even if they speak differently to those with a faith in god (whatever she may look like). Where last week’s poem spoke of the power of appreciation and gratitude, this week’s is about acceptance; and I hope that even if you’re triggered by the word god you’ll hang in there long enough to read Kaylin Haught’s ‘God says Yes to Me‘.

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poetry appreciation

ways to persist

Jan 28, 2022 #acceptance, #Bass, #courage, #despair, #determination, #difficulty, #Ellen Bass, #encourage, #endurance, #grief, #hope, #KBO, #loss, #persistence, #presence, #the thing is, #vulnerability, #weariness, #weary by Lucy Crispin

Lots of us find this time of year difficult at the best of times and, as we have noted before, these are not the best of times. So for the next while I want to share some poems which I find helpful. I would also be delighted to hear from you about poems which support you to carry on. (Drop me an email or comment below and we can have your poem in the column sometime soon.) But for today I want to share Ellen Bass’s ‘The Thing Is‘ which I find breathtakingly honest and stark and beautiful, and which definitely inspires me.

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poetry appreciation

and yet more weather

Nov 11, 2021 #acceptance, #ageing, #autumn, #death, #Early October Snow, #Germaine Greer, #Greer, #Haight, #intimations of mortality, #mortality, #November, #October, #Robert Haight, #Snow, #The Change, #winter by Lucy Crispin

I realise it’s a bit late to offer you a poem called ‘Early October Snow‘, but it turned up in my inbox right at the end of last month and I can’t bear to wait another year before sharing it! I think Robert Haight’s poem is quietly beautiful in its imagery, and powerful in an understated way; so I hope that, thinking so too, you’ll forgive my tardiness.

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poetry appreciation

making the most of it

Apr 15, 2021 #acceptance, #affection, #ageing, #gratitude, #happiness, #kindness, #laughter, #McNair, #tenderness, #warmth, #Wesley McNair by Lucy Crispin

This week’s poem brought a soft smile to my face. It has a delightful quality of warmth and tenderness, and is such a good reminder of making the most of what we have—not in a Brownie-Guide Come on, girls, no moping! style, but in a much more palatable, seeing what is, not just what isn’t sort of a way. Enjoy ‘Happiness‘ by Wesley McNair.

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poetry appreciation

the tyranny of shoulds

Mar 11, 2021 #A moment, #acceptance, #appreciate, #Arnold, #calm, #gift, #Howe, #John Keats, #Keats, #Marie Howe, #Matthew Arnold, #moment, #Ode on Melancholy, #ok, #peace, #relief, #self critcism, #self critic, #small pleasures, #still, #stillness, #The Buried Life by Lucy Crispin

I’ve been searching the interweb for a poem called ‘Delivery’ by Marie Howe, and can’t find it anywhere (if anyone has more luck, do please let me know). The search was not wasted, though, because I’ve discovered more of her poetry, and today I’ve got ‘The Moment‘ for you to… well… take a moment (sorry) to read.

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poetry appreciation

the wheel of fortune

Feb 18, 2021 #acceptance, #agency, #ambition, #calm, #chance, #change, #comfort, #connection, #constant, #destiny, #fate, #Fortune, #meaning, #modest, #modesty, #passivity, #peace, #philosophical, #powerlessness, #reflection, #Robert Southall, #soothing, #Southall, #times go by turnes, #wheel of fortune by Lucy Crispin

I just love it when a poem from another time or place “reaches” me: suddenly I’m in relationship with someone from another age or culture, often someone whose bones are long since turned to dust. Ain’t that something? Last week a poetry magazine I read had Robert Southall’s* ‘Times go by Turns‘ printed under the Editorial, and I had just that experience of remote connection: I felt less alone—comforted by being accompanied, by seeing what is common and constant in human experience. See if the poem does it for you, too.

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poetry appreciation

peine forte et dure

Jul 16, 2020 #acceptance, #coronavirus, #Covid 19, #Denise Levertov, #feelings, #grief, #Levertov, #mourning, #news, #pandemic, #peine forte et dure, #press, #pressing, #process, #sadness, #Talking to grief, #torture by Lucy Crispin

Apparently that’s the name for the torture whereby a board was placed on top of you and weights gradually added until the life was crushed out of you (or you made a plea in relation to the crime of which you were accused). “Pressing”, as it was also known, comes to my mind every now and then these days when I turn on the news or check out The Grauniad website and hear what the latest Thing is. I have a distinctly physical sense of another weight being added, another piece of bad news and difficulty on top of what already felt like a crushing load. Thus half an hour ago I was to be seen sitting with my forehead on the desk trying to summon the energy and will to sit upright. I’m sure this is a common experience. What works, apart from coffee, chocolate or a walk in the wood, is acknowledging to myself what I’m actually feeling; and so I give you ‘Talking to Grief‘ by Denise Levertov.

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