For my regular Wednesday post this week (oops! it's Thursday--how did that happen?) I thought I would share a few more poems/songs that have been speaking to me in the midst of this strange new pandemic world we find ourselves in.
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Part of the Plan
I have these moments, all steady and strong, I'm feeling so holy and humble. The next thing I know, I'm all worried and weak And I feel myself starting to crumble.
The meanings get lost
and the teachings get tossed And you don't know what you're
going to do next.
You wait for the sun
but it never quite comes, Some kind of message
comes through to you, Some kind of message comes through.
And it says to you,
Love when you can,
Cry when you have to. Be who you must,
that's a part of the plan. Await your arrival With simple survival And one day we'll all understand.
Dan Fogelberg
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Sisters of Mercy
All the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone. They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on. And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song. Oh, I hope you run into them, you who've been traveling so long.
Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control. It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul. Well, I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned. When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned.
Well, they lay down beside me,
I made my confession to them. They touched both my eyes
and I touched the dew on their hem. If your life is a leaf
that the seasons tear off and condemn. They will bind you with love
that is graceful and green as a stem.
When I left they were sleeping,
I hope you run into them soon. Don't turn on the lights,
you can read their address by the moon. And you won't make me jealous
if I hear that they sweetened your night. We weren't lovers like that and besides,
it would still be alright
Leonard Cohen
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‘Tis a Fearful Thing
‘Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing, a holy thing to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love, a holy thing, to love what death has touched.
Yehuda HaLevi [Yeh-hoo-dah Hah-lev-ee]
11th century Jewish poet
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The world indeed is full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Until next time,
Dawn
Photo credits:
Anonymous
Anonymous
Sunyu, unSplash
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