Balance (vol. 6, no. 3)

Here are a few things I’m sharing this month:

1. Question:

…I mean what
would you do if you had to create Beauty? – Dean Young (quoted by Mary Karr in The Art of Memoir)

2. Poem:

Excerpts from The Weighing by Jane Hirshfield:

So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.

3. Poem (I reading more poetry right now):

Excerpt from Digging by Seamus Heaney:

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.

4. Something inspiring:

• “Rumi’s teacher was the mysterious Shams of Tabrese and found buried in one of Shams’ discourses a poem that seems to have been written by Shams himself. So this is its debut as far as I know in — in English. “I … you … he … she … we … I … you … he … she … we. In the garden of mystic lovers, I … you … he … she … we. In the garden of mystic lovers, these … are not true distinctions. I … you … he … she … we.” – Coleman Barks (in an interview with Bill Moyers)

5. New Blogs in my Football is… series:

• Cris Collinsworth: “I want to document the wonder that happens on the edges of metropolitan areas, in places you might pass by at high velocity. Places ignored except when politicians need a photo op at one of our restaurants.”
• The People of Cleves: “This procession of youth in numbered jerseys along this sacred length of Miami Avenue is more than just tradition or celebration—it is a communal ritual.”
• Gen X v Gen Z: The Mouthpiece: “Here are three reasons why all of us Gen X ballers cherish the humble mouthpiece.”

Thanks so much. And, have a great day! – shawn