BURNING AND LEARNING NEWS:
WHILE FIRES RAGE WE RENEW OUR APPRECIATION FOR WILDERNESS, AND THE VITAL ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN HOW WE SEE AND TREAT OUR EARTH, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 97TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE
On certain “fee-free” days throughout 2013 enjoy free entrance to all national parks including Muir Woods and Yosemite Park.
AND WE’LL TALK ABOUT WHY WE HAVE FREE ENTRANCE ON THESE DAYS—WHY MLK, JR., WHY APRIL 22-26, WHY AUGUST 25, AND CELEBRATE THE EXTRAORDINARY CITIZENRY SHAPING OUR LAWS, LAND, AND MORAL LANDSCAPE
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Chuck Tripi’s poem
Janet’s poem Rumi she sent!

TODAY, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.

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This is good news for all of us. Many of you know 65 and all of us hope to know. Some did not make it but lit the way of aging with commando* hope—going forth, being in the moment, unprepared, saying our lines anyway! We’ll hear poets writing in their late 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 100+, and my sense, on turning 65, what’s old, what’s new, what’s borrowed, what’s blue, what matters, what’s the matter, what smatters, what shatters, what clatters, what spatters, what’s to enjoy, what’s to live for and against, what’s to say, who can say, who knows, what’s happening, some o’ that . . .
So in our days of hot messes in this month of August, poetry cools us down, sees us in our glory, a magic mirror in which you’re cool and beaming and lustrous. That’s how I see you, earnestly living this life, striving to do justice to the gift of consciousness, and as I reflect on my birthday with you, I am brimming with gratitude and honor at you being in my life, this gift of a poetry community to whom what we say and how we say it matters utterly to our world.

© Barbara Mossberg 2013

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