Reteach a thing its loveliness by Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even those things which don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them;
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
PS Anyone tell me how to change the spacing to single - I didn't intend this to be in double spacing.
oh how lovely......so beautifully put...x
ReplyDeleteVery nice. Love the picture as well. Too fun about the ketchup thing. Yes, we Americans do love our K and also the ice. S and I actually call ourselves Ice Snobs...we only like clear. Actually, a separate ice maker.. I no, I no...it bad.
ReplyDeleteA lovely poem that paints a very earthy picture! Lovely blog!
ReplyDeleteI think its so true that we can find loveliness in all things if we look close enough!
ReplyDeleteSuch a calm thoughtful post with a lovely picture to illustrate the words.
Jeanne x
Quite unexpected, but it does remind you to see the beauty in everything. Lovely poem...
ReplyDeleteCalm words and beautiful calm picture to go with it. Can understand why you kept the cutting.
ReplyDeleteI love the poem. I am fond of pigs, & think the newborn piglets resemble little rosebuds, about to unfold.
ReplyDeleteWe kept pigs for some time, so I have seen them being born...magic.
"...to put a hand on its brow
ReplyDeleteof the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within..."
That's my favourite part. Perfect!
I forgot to tell you: my village is in northern Greece.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteAnna x
That is a lovely piece. The best thing is to draft your post in a text editor rather than Word, so you do the spacings in that. Then copy and paste into the edit blog box.
ReplyDeletePomona x