Meditation

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Today’s poem is based on a daily meditation I have been doing with my rosary. I think of each decade as representing one of the elements–Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit–and I map those elements onto the pentacle points of my body: left hand is Earth, left foot is Air, and so on. During the past few weeks, I have been visualizing flowers at those points, as I visualize myself opening to what the day will bring to me.

Meditation
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

My left hand holds a stone bowl of rich dark loam
and a green shoot that breaks from a seed, emerges,
grows, blossoms, fruits, drops seed, and dies
only to emerge again, a surging and an ebbing.

A witch hazel tree grows from my left foot,
strings of yellow blossom teased by breezes,
fruits rattling in the the wind, dragon mouths snapping open

My right foot is on fire with a flamboyant in bloom,
the tree’s red petals blazing and alive with bees,
the hum of bees like waves of crackling flame
flowering into a raging bonfire of blossom.

A blue lotus floats in the pond of my right palm,
its single stem anchored deep within me,
enchanting blue nymph, serene in her bowl

A field of purple cosmos bursts from my brow,
opening my third eye, the home of spirit,
petals opening to the sun, gathering the light.

Gratitude List:
1. Flowers
2. Meditations
3. Bouncing back
4. The fierce delight of Middle Schoolers playing gaga ball
5. Doing Crossword puzzles with my seniors
May we walk in Beauty!

So Tired

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Oh, goodness. I am exhausted tonight. Here’s a placeholder poem. One of my rules is that the poems don’t have to be polished. I go into the month knowing, especially in November, that I will have some evenings when I struggle to function, and can only publish a little bit of fluff.

How the Day Closes In
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

my brain is fogged in
caught in the mists
not even the foghorn
not even the lighthouse
not even the grim shadows
can guide me tonight
my ship is enharbored
for the foreseeable future

Gratitude List:
1. Cats who want to be next to me
2. Thanksgiving Break is coming up
3. A brisk after-dinner walk
4. Salmon patties
5. The satisfaction of a good stretch
May we walk in Beauty!

Spell to Break the Patriarchy

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Yes, I know I wrote a “Spell to Tumble the Tower of Patriarchy” just a couple days ago. So?

by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Heal the girl inside you.
Remake the stories, and
reel them back and back
into time, where the girl,
enthralled by Beauty,
(not in thrall to power)
enters the mouth of the earth,
where she chooses her pathway,
following the red flower
of her own truth, her own
permission, her own purpose
into the heart of her own realm.

Give her agency.
Give her choice.
Honor her and listen to her voice.
Look into the shadows
through her curious eyes.
Feel her power rise within you.

This time, when the gods come ravaging,
rise with her in the door to the cavern,
summon the tribe of fierce mothers
of fearsome and raging cave bears,
morning sun glinting on your ravening teeth.

Be the raven who guards
the boundary between,
become the hunter of the predators,
take vengeance into your jaws.

Look for the terror to rise in their eyes.
Growl. Give chase. Howl.
An older magic than theirs lives here.
A wilder wisdom feeds this older story.

They may not pass into your secret places.
They may not enter your guarded door.
Their reign of terror will shatter,
shards scattering, raining down upon them.

Gratitude List:
1. Laughter
2. How my succulents are growing even in the dark season
3. The sun through clouds
4. Colored pencils
5. A little full-spectrum light to tide me through the season
May we walk in Beauty!

Such a Wind

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Such a Wind
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Such a wind.
Such a wild, wild wind.
Corn husks spiraling down out of the sky,
leaves rising in my rearview mirror
like something out of a German luxury car ad,
that move-along shove from behind
as you walk from the house to your car.

A devil-may-care wind,
a witches-are-passing wind,
a scouring, powerful rowdy wind,
the kind that could blow down
the towers of injustice,
pull kings from their thrones,
and lay waste the structures built of lies.
No house of cards can stand
in the face of that wind.

Gratitude List:
1. The softness of milkweed fluff
2. The view from my parents’ new apartment
3. Rest
4. Smoothie for supper
5. Reminders to seek joy
May we walk in Beauty!

Hiking the Trails at Chestnut Grove

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Hiking the Chestnut Grove Trails
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

It is both disconcerting and charming,
the soft grassy pathways disarming the sense of disquiet,
the riot of goldenrod, foxtail, and milkweed,
native plants seeded along the human-formed hillsides

the wide expanse of grasses, ponds, brambles, and shrubs
with scrubby trees and a diverse plantation of oaks.
The smoke from farm and industry jar the view,
but here too you can see the River, and an eagle gliding,

riding the thermals along the opposite ridge,
can see almost as far as the bridge, and down to the dam,
more emblems of how humans have transformed
the landscape, bearing witness to hundreds of years

of human interference, how it all settles uneasily
into these spaces of wildness and cultivation.

Gratitude List:
1. Good brisk walking on the hobbitiest of trails
2. The Susquehanna River
3. So many varieties of oak!
4. Time with a friend who understands my language
5. Cheese on toast
May we walk in Beauty!

Revolution

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

My friend Mara has challenged her online community to write a sonnet on the 14th day of the month. I will definitely try my hand at something more traditional some month, but today I was feeling experimental, and I read an interesting abecedarian today, so I thought: Half of 26 letters in the alphabet is 13, and if I emphasize the last two letters by giving them their own lines, then I’ll have the 14 lines necessary for a sonnet. Read across? Read down? Read on a downward zigzag? You choose the pathway.

Gratitude List:
1. Weekend–my energy for the work week was definitely flagging
2. A good long walk (on the treadmill, because darkness and cold)
3. One of my colleagues complimented my sweater today by saying I was rocking the 80s vibe, and I feel Seen.
4. Water–nothing like a cold drink of water when you’re tired
5. Experimentation and wordplay
May we walk in Beauty!

The Failing Tyrant

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment
Found poem on a classroom white board.

The Failing Tyrant
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

He’s sure working hard to suppress
the evidence of his presumed innocence.

What possible reason could there be,
if he is guilt-free, to keep it hidden?

He’s bidden his stooges to silence,
riding his sycophants for their loyalty,

expecting to be treated like royalty,
trusting his privilege to keep him free

from the consequences of accountability.
But the truth is circling ever closer

and he knows although he won’t admit
that every century is lit up with the fires

of dictators and strongmen, tyrants
and would-be kings spiralling down

to their inevitable ends, their deeds
laid bare in the glare of a new-risen sun.

Gratitude List:
1. Re-establishing helpful practices, like making gratitude lists
2. The crescent moon in the sycamore tree
3. Soup
4. Tea
5. Big warm sweaters
May we walk in Beauty!

Cast Off

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Cast Off
after Liz Berry

I crossed the border into the Republic of Heretics,
and discovered a savage and beautiful country.

I handed over my badge, my Confession of Faith, and my halo,
removed my uniform, and put on a robe of ragged motley,

took up the pen and the wand, the seed and the bowl,
and made my home in the wildlands beyond the hedge.

I ran naked with outcasts through ruined cities,
and when trespassers came from the other world

we circled around them, stared into their rabbit eyes,
and ran on in our wayward ferality. I had cast off shame

like outworn garments, had no need of the bound ones
and their domestic pronouncements.

How I howled when the moon rose over that country. In this place,
I can feel my bones, and the blood in the rivers of my body.

The first line of Liz Berry’s “Republic of Motherhood” in the current issue of The Poetry Foundation’s magazine Poetry arrested me, and I couldn’t stop thinking of it. Each new shouldered identity becomes a border crossing, a new country. I often felt like an outsider in The Republic of Motherhood, though it has been a joyful and fulfilling place for me. Still, I have never felt so much belonging as I have since I have taken on the identity of Heretic, and joined the ones who howl at the moon.

As I was working on my poem, I was caught by how quickly the synonyms for wild get very negative–savage, brutal, fiendish–and how the synonyms for tame tend toward blandness. The set which seems to break that mold, and which I want to work with more deeply in the future is unbroken and broken. Wild and unbroken, broken and tame. I like the word ferality. And wildishness.

Gratitude List:
1. Good company
2. YouTube videos that inspire art
3. My very creative and caring colleagues
4. Grace. Let’s all give ourselves a little grace today
5. So many good books to read!
May we walk in Beauty!

The Chase

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Chase
a haiku sonnet
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

was i chasing down
a startled deer in the dawn
or myself i chased

we locked our gazes
for a moment or more
then he turned and ran

he performed the role
of hunted while i became
this story’s hunter

how my heart lifted when he
disappeared into the corn

Gratitude List:
1. The tang of pomegranate seeds
2. The curve of that wooden bowl from Tanzania
3. The thrill at the first line on a clean page
4. The promise of sleep in a couple hours
5. the satisfaction of a good, deep stretch
May we walk in Beauty!

Finding the Way Through the Poem

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Finding the Way Through the Poem
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

All these keys at my fingertips.
Which will open the door of the poem?
Which combination will turn this moment
from a frenzied search through random rooms
to a purposeful path through the maze?

Most days, I just begin opening them,
door after door. Try this one, then this.
Sometimes, I find a rhythm, a pattern to follow,
a repetition, a thread of idea.

Or, like now, I feel myself reaching
the dead-end of the hallway,
time is running out,
the patterns are tangling,
and I have missed the essential clue.

I’m not looking for a way out.
I’m looking for the way through.

Gratitude List:
1. My students. They’re witty, charming, thoughtful, wise, intelligent, brave, resilient. . . I have so much to learn from them.
2. Livestreams from African water holes.
3. I’m trying to keep my glucose levels under control. Today I realized that one savored bite of a Stroopy is actually almost as good as snarfing down a whole one.
4. Feeling more confident in my body.
5. Painting with watercolors.
May we walk in Beauty!