06 November 2009

(a beautiful poem, from a true and beautiful friend)

instructions upon entering darkness

You must hibernate:
Gather food,
Hold your rosary,
Hope (try to).

Always surround yourself with books,
not to read (necessarily)
But to remind yourself that some things
do last
and new stories are retold.
Transformation with time.

Don't talk too much,
Lips need slumber too.
Learn to listen,
Ears need constant vigilance.
Pray,
Only then will you know inherent value.

Drink wine with friends who don't
rush your pain.
Believe that humility rarely shows
up without humiliation.

Turn your face to the sky:
The earth will continue to rotate around an axis
toward the sun's rays.
Winter is coming,
Spring will come after.
The deep sleep will be aroused...
It will.

A frozen river still rushes water deep within.

And when the ice does thaw,
don't forget.
The sea was parted, the walls were tumbled,
the way was prepared.
Remember--for this will come again--
Just as the leaves fall, fertilize and recloak
the oaks of righteousness.

rebecca mcneil smith

14 October 2009

a poem i love. which, i think, could also be appropriately titled, how to be alive.


How To Be a Poet

by Wendell Berry

(to remind myself)

i

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.

ii

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

iii

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.
more photos of the street boys in nairobi.

02 October 2009

You who are God’s servants are living in a foreign country, for your own city-state is far away from this city-state. Knowing which is yours, why do you acquire fields, costly furnishings, buildings, and frail dwellings here? Anyone who acquired things for himself in this city cannot expect to find the way home to his own City. Do you not realize that all these things here do not belong to you, that they are under a power alien to your nature? The ruler will say you do not obey my laws, either observe my laws or get out of my country, Take care lest it prove fatal to you to repudiate your own laws. Acquire no more here than what is absolutely necessary. Instead of fields, buy for yourselves people in distress in accordance with your means.

-Hermas, 140 AD

30 August 2009

remember that time sam went to college?


this is when sam drives.

when sam pretends to be a lazy hippie.


when i take a gratuitous self portrait.

when sam makes her crazyface.


when sam pretends to be literate.


when sam is pretty.


when dad is displeased.


when mom is happy.

when sam tries to electrocute the baby.


hannah at dinner. (sam and hannah have known each other since they were tiny babies in memphis.)


papaw. (papaw was our next-door neighbor/grandfather growing up.)


taylorday. (a friend ive known since i was about two.)


mother and daughter. (laura and layla at dinner.)


sam and hannah.

23 August 2009

lesotho, part 3


john stokes the coal fire one evening when the temperature drops below freezing.


therron reads and reflects on a sunday morning before church.


the guys have a ton of time for reading. it is like a winter sabbatical, surrounded by beauty and the company of good thinkers.


john plays football with some of the village children before church.


john holds a young girl as they wait for her parents to get home.

22 August 2009

lesotho, part 2

i think this is my favorite image from this coverage. therron shows a young girl how to blow a dandelion.


john and therron work in the corn fields with a local pastor.

john throws an ear of corn into the harvest pile.

john plays with a little boy, swinging him around in circles, before church on a sunday morning.

john and therron spend some time talking to a man on their way home from visiting shepherds at the top of the mountain.