I love November more than almost any other month. Something about this time of year sets my soul singing. The words to my late Fall spirit-song pop up from myriad sources--the scriptures (especially Isaiah and Psalms), memories of music or books from my childhood, favorite poems whose passages jumble together, and the unwritten verses that lie banked and flickering in my mind until autumn blows on them and they kindle briefly to life. This week one of my favorite poems has throbbed in me every day, like a low Thanksgiving chant. Maybe your soul would like to sing too, but doesn't know the lyrics. Try out Gerard Manley Hopkins' gorgeous November-worthy lines. They fit, I think:
Pied Beauty
GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
So now that your mind is working in word music, what poem or scripture or passage of any kind best captures the grateful song in your soul? What are you thankful for? Please share it in a comment on this blog post, so that we can all read. (It's not that hard, friends. Click on the "Comments" line below. Scroll down until you see the "Post a comment" form. Type your comment in the space provided and click on "Post Comment. Voila!) Leave a thread of gratitude for me to catch hold of and weave into the fabric of my Thanksgiving this year.
How amazing...we're vibrating to the same beat. I just emailed someone another Hopkins poem yesterday--I can't see fall leaves without reciting this in my head:
ReplyDeleteSpring and Fall to a Young Child
MÁRGARÉT, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts, care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
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I do weep and know why, but hope my heart has not grown colder :-)
Gorgeous, Kalliope. Thank you. Here's to hearts eternally aglow!
ReplyDeleteWhat a rich poem. I want to chew on that for a while. Yesterday we walked in the woods behind our house - the Adirondack foothills, wow! - and my heart was so full of the beauty of the day that I literally couldn't help from bursting into song. For the Beauty of the Earth and I Wonder as I Wander came first to mind. It was a glorious morning. It's raining today, but I think we'll put on our boots and head out all the same.
ReplyDeleteI too love November and all the beauty it brings to my heart. My favorite expression of this beauty comes in the form of a children's book (I can't help it; I think in children's literature... teacher, you know). It's called In November by Cynthia Rylant. Beautiful book with beautiful illustrations. My kids' favorite is Thanks for Thanksgiving. I can't remember who wrote it. But again, beautiful sentiment and beautiful illustrations. I highly recommend them both, even for adults. They are too long to write them out in a comment but my favorite part from In November is at the very end: "In November, at winter's gate, the stars are brittle. The sun is a sometime friend. And the world has tucked her children in, with a kiss on their heads, till spring." I love it!
ReplyDeleteLately the imagery of my cup runneth o'er has been in my head daily. That's truly how I've felt lately, that my gratitude is just overflowing. I have so much to be thankful for, especially my new home and ward, and my awesome mom who made our move happen. ;o)I feel like I have too many blessing to fit, so they're just tumbling over the edges and spilling over. My life is so full.
ReplyDeleteA.-For the Beauty of the Earth is one of my all time favorite hymns. Aaah, the Adirondacks! November bliss.
ReplyDeleteJen-I love Cynthia Rylant, but don't know the book you mention. What a lovely little word picture at the end! Thanks for sharing.
Jewels-My cup looks like yours. Overflowing.
Joseph Wirthlin's talk "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" resonates off my soul-walls this time of year: “Gratitude turns a meal into a feast and drudgery into delight. It softens our grief and heightens our pleasure. It turns the simple and common into the memorable and transcendent. It forges bonds of love and fosters loyalty and admiration. . . . Our minds have a marvelous capacity to notice the unusual. However, the opposite is true as well: The more often we see the things around us—even the beautiful and wonderful things—the more they become invisible to us. . . . Those who live in thanksgiving daily, however, have a way of opening their eyes and seeing the wonders and beauties of this world as though seeing them for the first time.”
ReplyDeleteAnd Hopkins is there as well: "The world is charged with the grandeur of God . . ."
I love this season. I am grateful.