#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Charles River
“. . . This journey is exploring us. Where the child stood
An island in a river of crisis, now
The bridges bind us in symbol, the sea
Is a bond, the sky reaches into our bodies.
We pray : we dive into each other’s eyes. . .”
~ Excerpt from “Waterlily Fire,” Muriel Rukeyser
After rain, the tree bark, soaked with color, litters the path. The beech leaves hang in stillness to dry. Just me and Charlie and the quiet. I follow an impulse, find in my podcasts a poetry podcast recording from the Poetry Foundation of Mureil Rukeyser reading her long poem, “Waterlily Fire,” and I listen, taking it in, it’s not the first time listening, but it’s the first time understanding, how this poem, written in 1958, published in 1962, inspired by the burning of a Monet painting of waterlilies in the Museum of Modern Art, is channeling the emotional truth of the pandemic in New York City.
The sun comes out. Today is a day of groundbreaking: Frank goes into a corner of the meadow and breaks ground for the garden to be.
On my walk I imagine a radical revision of my silent meditation retreat poem.
New beginnings.
