Poet and writer for children and adults

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The Value of Poetry

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In this time of instability and nervous grasping at “facts,” there can be a hurried disdain for that which is not perceived to be functionally able to create change. But actions are driven by responses to perception, and how much of what we “know” is our own way of explaining life to ourselves? To open ourselves to a wider lens requires not only perception, but interaction as well. The mystery of life, of spirit, and of nature  is what keeps the written word malleable and alive in both our minds and hearts by melding the two in a way that the recitation of facts, or the quick reliance upon opinion rarely can. Leaving room for what both the writer and the reader bring to, and take from the experience of poetry gives freedom and an affirmation of identity that is rarely found outside of competitive accomplishment in our culture today. It is still a wondrous and ineffably immense gift to be aware of “being” and to become aware of that gift through the broadening and awakening of experience that can be found in poetry.

McBride 9-2022

Landscapes of Poetry Third Annual Holiday Reading

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Jack Ridl and his Landscapes of Poetry group offered a Holiday Reading hosted by Jack on December 14th.
The following poems were part of the evening:

Christmas Wishes

What I wish you to receive
is the Permission to be you,
in all your honest wondering:
open to the filling that
will come from finding how to give,
what makes you whole,
unsheathes what lies behind
your armor –
lets you breathe unfettered air.

Confidence to change your mind,
to answer the small quiet call
toward something you have never tried
that keeps the fire in you alive.

Courage to embrace life’s questions
without panicked grasps for answers
to escape the gnaw of waiting
or cocoon known towers of thought.

Reverence for the gift of choices,
and the magnitude of difference
broad perspectives have to offer
us – and all that is unknown.

Wisdom to discern reactions –
from responses – yours and others,’
breaking chains of escalation,
offering forbearing peace.

Eyes that look with Mercy upon
acts of others and your own,
recognizing fear and defense
hide behind our sharp protections,
drawing tight the cords that constrain
kindness, trust, and healing love.

Tender hands cupped close to hold
all the brokenness you find.
And in that sheltered space you offer,
seeds of Strength to root and grow.

Knowledge that you are not yet
the self that you will someday be,
thus placing yourself nearest doorways
that will open toward your dreams.

A strong Yearning to allow
your gifts and talents to lean forward
out of the machine of earnings
into all of who you are.

A Kaleidoscopic Lens
through which to look and see yourself
burst from small comparisons
(you may have claimed to be your own),
then, radiating into brightening
circles of expanding impact,
unleashing an endless offer
to Become who you can be.

A life wide-open to Surprise
at how Great Goodness can arrive
in darkest moments and in light,
in increments and flowing seas.

This is what I wish for you
this Christmas and in each day forward,
all these ways of living Kindly –
all these ways to Give.

And in the words of a dear friend, “Be Gentle with yourself.”

McBride 12-2022

 

What We Know

I hear the traffic I cannot see
100 yards below, on the highway,
look up and see that winds above
are lifting and swaying the limbs of a tree.
But the test of belief
still remains the far island
sprawled and reclining on the horizon,
its bluffs, hills, and flatlands,
and wide stretch of beaches
defined on the map, but revealed
when it chooses.

And there is contentment in finally seeing it
when it presents itself there to be seen,
meanwhile believing it real
in the darkness, like: wind,
truth, intention, love, growth, faith
and time.

Each thing bestowed
for our parsed writhen vision,
our “bringing to being”
of all that we know
or, are willing to see.

McBride 12-2022

 

 

 

 

Aid for the People of the Ukraine – “Busy Griefs, Raw Towns,” AVAILABLE NOW!

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“Busy Griefs, Raw Towns,” is a collection of poets’ responses to the war in the Ukraine. It is edited by GF Korreck and is now available! Published by Schuler Books, all proceeds from the sale of the book are forwarded to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to support continuing Ukraine relief efforts.

Order your copies here: https://www.schulerbooks.com/chapbook-press/pod9781957169125

Prayer for the New Year

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Bless the “new “  in this New Year, please.
Help us know it as “renewal.”
Renew all through the great healing
we can give to one another
with authentic full attention,
greetings, gestures, hugs, and handshakes;
treasures we are waiting for.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Help us be sources of comfort
for those seared by loss and longing,
haunted by despair and distance,
cries unanswered, words unspoken.
Help us fill the wells of heartbreak
and release love’s flow again.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Help us come to know what need IS;
how it reaches from the shadows,
out of hungers, out of troubles, out of fears
that blind – it stumbles; not toward
things, but toward their stewards.
Teach us how to truly give.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Help us yield our understandings.
Help us recognize our insights
(our assured and firm conclusions),
are no larger than what we’ve lived – –
and make room for truths as valid
and real in others as our own.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Turn our eyes to focus forward,
shirking blame and retribution
for the vision of becoming
people who know of their context
here, in this shared sphere of wonder;
individuals together, choosing harmony as One.

Bless the “new” in this New Year, please.
Renew our health, our strength and vigor,
mend our spirits, build compassion
for each other; our awareness
of the sacred gift of being
in the presence of another.

Give us each other,
please?

Renew “us.”

 

To view a live reading of this poem,  go to:
The Landscapes of Poetry Holiday Reading 2020: https://youtu.be/vxuaHFLbW4E

 

 

Re-evaluating the Routine

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Disoriented? Lost your moorings? Wondering which day it is? Missing your Zoom meeting while watching a replay of last night’s webinar? Feeling like last Spring’s sudden changes have become Fall’s endless corn maze experience?

What are we missing that would bring back a sense of normality in our lives?

Familiar constraints.

Yes, those limitations we always thought were holding us back, actually brought forth plans to resist or work around them, and a sense of accomplishment and purpose when we did so. Before the pandemic’s changes to your operating plans, how much of your daily routine was oriented toward superceding the limits you saw ahead in your day? Commute times impacted departure plans, wake-up times; bedtimes. Kid’s activities, sport events, club meetings meant food preparations and grocery shopping were scheduled during, or in-between everything else.

Our constraints can easily become our focus, which concentrates our efforts toward overcoming them, and leads to taking comfort in the degree of predictability we can establish in our lives. Thus we (unintentionally) come to think of our reactions to limitations/constraints around us as actions that are moving us forward instead.

In early 2020 many of the “given” constraints in our lives fell away. The plans we had made to keep our lives in order no longer applied and may not do so again for awhile. New demands have arrived, along with new limits to the fruitfulness of our efforts to meet them. And many of us feel like we are flailing at a curtain of darkness and confusion.

When the lights go out, we can keep looking for the switch,

or we can learn to see in the dark.

Maybe the pathways we’ve been traveling were built in response to limits we no longer have to work around or against. Maybe we’ve measured our own successes by our abilities to manage our lives within those constraints.  Now is the time to examine what has consumed our efforts and defined our focus. Now is the time to determine what focus and direction we want in our lives, and design our life choices toward a mission and purpose we specifically choose; a clear view of how and who we want to BE in this world.

The uncomfortable inapplicability of our usual plans to our current situations (as we have adapted to the pandemic) may actually be bringing us a gift.

Every change presents an opportunity.

How much of your life has been a reaction to circumstances? What do you want your life to BE? Turn your efforts TOWARD your goals, rather than AWAY from what you have been trying to avoid, and LIVE FORWARD into possibilities you may never before have imagined.

The Need for Light

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It’s happening. Yes, Fall is definitely upon us, layering its dark blanket over us earlier in the evenings and lifting the corners to the day later and later in the mornings.

And we crave the light.

Perhaps we are anticipating the constricting cold and the weighty skies of winter overhead, but there is a marked difference in our energy levels, movement, and outlook when the precious sun makes its appearance here, in the northern climes.

Our attentions are attracted to the things we fear as a vigilant defense against their threat. Yet the impending cover does not mean light won’t exist. Our willingness to focus on its loss, rather than celebrate and enjoy what we have, is our reaction to what we have learned through time. The days get shorter, there’s less light for months to come. But there still is light, and the days will be longer once again, and soon enough, the seasons will bring forth the new. What can we do while we wait?

Make conscious choices to engage the light we do receive. Go outside for a walk at noon, arrange your workspace indoors to receive the natural light that does exist. Train your eyes to discern the patterns in nature that are uncovered with the fall of leaves; notice the outlines, vistas, shapes, and distances now available to see. Discover something. Notice and enjoy and appreciate – inquire. Learn to be attentive, walk in a worshipful stance in the world. There is much to be aware of, and thus to be thankful for.

Constantly gathering information for meaning-making; training ourselves to examine our gathering process (what we are willing to notice and give our attention to) gives us back the control we need to construct the meaning we seek in our lives. The desperation so rampant in our culture now is a direct result of flailing about to gather all information from all sources, without filtering its usefulness or its integrity, or its ability to satisfy the soul’s inquiry. We are living in survival mode – on information overload that is received at a speed that defies intake or calculated responses. What we do receive, we choke on. We thrash our way to the surface of each hour by narrowing our intake, leaving anything but survival out. In our clamoring, we only hear the noises louder than our own. We have become a society that begs its methods of escape to overtake us rather than allow us to wander in and pick up what we seek or need.

But restoration doesn’t come from escapism. Restoration is growth; the overcoming of loss. To grow, we must empower ourselves with calm and the comfort of intake at our level of need. Calm isn’t something you can grab and run with, like a take-out pizza. You need to open yourself to it – stop and let it come as you choose what to let in: music, sights, thoughts, experiences; relationships that foster you, not overwhelm you. Be willing to let thinking, wondering, noticing, and seeking be your entertainment for awhile; being present in your own moments, instead of trading your sense of self for distractions.

In short, redefine joy. Allow it to come to you in its varied forms, and choose to contribute to the joy you want to find around you. Service is always the finest and most effective antidote for sadness, grief, loss, and the alienation and fatigue of depression. Making a difference somewhere outside of ourselves makes a difference within, as well.

Don’t wait for the reappearance of the Spring before you are willing to believe it will come. Plant your literal and figurative bulbs now, anticipating the bright flowers that will nod toward you in the Spring. Be the light in someone else’s darkness, and that light will spill on you as well. Walk toward the darkness with your arms outstretched, bring the candle – bring the light.

 

Getting Better at Being Young

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It always seems that wisdom comes with experience, and experience with time. Time’s passage unfortunately coincides with aging. And since there is no viable remedy for aging, a great deal of our knowledge, study, pursuit, energy, and effort is then given to ‘remaining young’ – or at least diminishing the signs and effects of the aging process, while we grow older anyway!

What if we were born with wisdom, understood the passage of time; the necessity of the cycle of growth and decay, saw beauty in all phases of changes, were able to live ‘hands open,’ permitting receiving as easily as letting go? What if we gloried in our experience of presence, knew about ‘enough,’ and could still smile when our own reflection in the mirror disappears, our footprints wash away, our touch to the skin of a loved one grows cool – knowing it is enough to have been fully there?

Where would all the desperation go; desperate efforts to claim, to keep, to protect, to multiply? And in the refuting of aging as loss, could we live calmly, as if we were timeless? Would we lose our fear? Wouldn’t we live better in this present world?

Before Now

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How much of what we perceive is what has been left behind? The blowing leaves tell us the wind was here, the arcs etched in the sand along the shore say the waves washed just this far before retreating, and a sigh of relief is the waning trail of breathless trepidation. In our awareness of remainders, what do we learn? We learn of mystery, of wonder, of awe; of one Who is other than ourselves and so much greater. And we learn of invitation, the great enticement into understanding; the ravenous hunger to know more – the essence of wisdom.

Put It Down

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It wasn’t the first time this had happened to me. You would think I would have learned the lesson by now, but there I was – stuck at the back door, trying to open it with too much in my hands.

I lifted my left wrist against the weight of the bags hanging from it, trying to grasp the knob while 56 ounces of orange juice, a jug of kefir, a bag of celery stalks, and a bag of Pink Lady apples kept my hand from reaching, much less turning the knob.

Use the other hand, you suggest? It was equally laden with a bag of chicken, a dozen eggs, butter, and shredded cheese – all carefully balanced along my right wrist, while a coveted cup of hot mocha was precariously held aloft in my hand. No way would I sacrifice chocolate for anything as mundane as opening a door!

And in that effort to be efficient, I: (A) could not get in the door, and (B) spent more time trying (first) to get in, and (second) not to drop or spill anything, than it would have taken for me to have made the two trips I should have made!

But why was I standing there floundering in the first place? Because I was trying to consolidate my efforts and make only one trip from the car to the kitchen, carrying the groceries. And why was that important? Because that is how I have trained myself to live, apparently without regard for whether it is necessary or not.

Doing too many things at one time not only divides and distracts our attention, it also divides and distracts us from our own experiences.

In an effort to economize activities, we can jeopardize their value in our lives. Have you ever caught yourself trying to multi-task RESTING? Really? Me too. Does everything need to have an additional layer intruding upon our experience of it?

For today, resolve to be aware of your efforts to multi-task, and ask if these efforts demean the experience of the tasks at hand for you. If your answer is “Yes,” then put something down and experience your involvements both fully and individually. Notice that the earth keeps spinning, even if you are not multi-tasking every experience. Treasure the moment (and the mocha) and let it be enough for that time. You will be more peaceful, more present in your circumstances, more available to the people around you, and probably more efficient for having been more cognizant of what you ARE doing, instead of looking for ways to get the tangles of baggage off one arm while the other is still laden.

Yet the issue goes further still. What about the thoughts you carry, your divided concentration and constant internal dialogue about what else you should be doing? There are times when multiple foci are necessary, if not lifesaving. But continuously operating in a fragmented mindset is exhausting and often driven by fears that are not always well-founded. Is that thing you might miss out on even something you really want? Are you chasing your dreams, or the ones you think others think you should have? Are you trying to accomplish ‘more’ in defense against feelings of not being good enough? If so, someone else is doing the driving on your life’s journey!

Take the wheel. Put down what you don’t need to carry. Anything that doesn’t help you move forward has the potential for holding you back. Choose which thoughts and messages to carry on your journey, which experiences to savor, and which activities to bundle and simply complete. As the late Mary Oliver asked in her wonderful poem, The Summer Day, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Don’t lessen your experience of living by multi-tasking it out of your own awareness.

Quotation from: New and Selected Poems (1992), by Mary Oliver, Beacon Press, Boston, MA.

Family Practice

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The Benefits of Reading Aloud with Children

For years, reading aloud with children has been known to be the single greatest predictor of school success for children. In The Power and Promise of Read-alouds and Independent Reading, (2018) published by the International Literacy Association, the authors discuss teacher-led read-aloud experiences and state: “There is a direct causal relationship between reading to children at a young age and their future schooling outcomes. Effective read-alouds increase children’s vocabulary, listening comprehension, story schema, background knowledge, word recognition skills, and cognitive development. In addition to these important academic benefits, read-alouds promote a love of literature, foster social interactions, and ignite a passion for lifelong reading habits. Reading aloud to children is so important that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents read aloud to their infants from birth”(ILA 2). Yet, despite the facts, reading aloud with, and to children has fallen by the wayside and is in a marked decline as a family practice. The authors state, “the National Endowment for the Arts warns that literacy – as a leisure activity – will virtually disappear in a half a century” (ILA 2).

The Unintended Effects of New Technologies

New technologies have offered entertaining alternative options that not only attract attention and may be influencing brain growth and development, but have the potential for influencing childrens’ social and emotional skill development as well. The convenience of handing a child an ebook read-aloud, a video game, or even an educational application on a phone or tablet allows parents to continue with their priorities while letting the device meet their child’s needs, or distract them from those needs. Using this trade-off only occasionally makes little difference for a child and may be a blessing for a busy parent, however substituting devices and distractions for parental interaction and involvement on a regular basis has quite a cost attached for both the parent and the child.

When Family Read-aloud Time is Lost…

…gone are the shared enjoyments of experiencing the story together, the attention given to the child’s comprehension of, and reaction to the story; the insight and meaning-making cues a parent gives while reading a story to their child, and the physical closeness of sharing the book between them.

If new words are encountered in the read-aloud played by the device, the child can skim past them easily, whereas their parent may have known the child would be unfamiliar with the word and given an explanation. Gone too, are the moments of putting oneself in a child’s shoes and seeing the world again from a child’s point of view, which certainly aids family interaction and relationship-building.

In addition, all the shared discussion of the reasoning within the story, outcomes, judgments about characters and their actions, expansion of understanding of family value systems, modeling of social and emotional cueing behaviors, and parental demonstrations of appropriate responses to emotional experiences are given up in lieu of the ease of providing entertainment and/or distraction via electronic devices.

Where is the influence coming from that is helping our children form their understanding of desirable interpersonal behavior and personal ethics? Do we want to have the ethics and behaviors found in gaming worlds and automated storytimes become the primary contributing factors in our childrens’ development?

Technological learning devices and games can help with skill development, enhance the development of perceptual abilities, and provide entertainment just like automated story experiences, applications, and even some television shows. But none of them are adequate substitutes for parental involvement, expressions of interest and caring, communication and clarification of family values, uninterrupted attention, vocabulary and reading interest development, and the shared experience of a story. Make it a family practice to practice being a family; reading aloud together can be an important piece of that practice!

– International Literacy Association. (2018). The power and promise of read-alouds and independent reading. [Literacy leadership brief]. Newark, DE. ILA/ Molly Ness.

– National Endowment for the Arts. (2004). Reading at risk: A survey of literary reading in America. Washington, DC: NEA/Tom Bradshaw.