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Upcoming Events
In Praise Of
A monthly contemplative poetry gathering
tuned towards awe and praise
Join me for a monthly writing and poetry workshop titled In Praise Of, in where we explore a topic, subject, idea, or person. There is an educational component, poems to explore, time for discussion, and writing and sharing. We explore both the difficult and the lovable. Rivers and war. Clouds and the fact of our breaking. Loss and Spring. There is something to praise in all of it.
In Praise Of
O tell us, poet, what you do. –I praise. - Rilke
I keep returning to this fact: something exists.
It could have been otherwise. The ground could have
not been, neither the rivers, nor the stars. And our
names would have not been spoken, and emptiness
would not be emptiness because possible was also
not. So I praise
the difficult blooming, the whimpering creek,
the visitor sweeping my house. Even with all the
deadly and monstrous ways, the many wars,
the nameless roaring blaze, still I praise
the living and the dead, the rising, the falling,
the mercy of impermanence, the certainty of love,
the certainty of loss, this precious inhale. It could
have been otherwise. And so I praise.
What else could our purpose be than this most
crucial task? To love the things of this earth,
to companion one another through the mystery,
to bear ourselves in beauty and terror, to pray,
to sing, to let this eternal river flow from our lips
over and over again in testimony—
we were here, we lived for a short while, we noticed,
we praised.
- Moudi Sbeity
