This summer I am writing with my Creative Nonfiction students at Lane Community College, and yesterday I asked them to write for 10 minutes on the question, “When have you known glory?” Of course, I always write with them, and for some reason, even though I’m supposed to be writing creative nonfiction, it looks like a poem came through this time.
Have You Known Glory?
I am she who has known glory–
I have walked into the late autumn woods
and known the color of the yellow larch
as it burned my turned-up face to cadmium fire.
Wenatchee State Forest, autumn larch in full autumnal glory (Image: justinreznickblog.wordpress.com)
If you want to know glory, follow me down the wayside seep,
springfed stream, hidden caves,
secret shrine, and there dwarf monkeyflowers
murmur their improvisations
in scarlet freckles and gold.
The brilliant yellow blossoms of Monkey Flower are a striking contrast to the steam and colors of a hot spring in Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone (Image: http://naturalsciences.org/microsites/education/Yellowstone/2008/pages/021C_Monkey%20flowers%20near%20hot%20spring.html)
I have followed the path of glory
down the steep black beach
crazy loud with storm surged surf
back-lit by a bloody sun setting hard
as a purie agate into the green-flushed sea.
I have followed the path of glory...
down steep black beach crazy loud with storm surged surf at Bob Beach
High surf at Bob Beach
All my life I’ve sought out glory,
confounded by the flights of common birds:
sparrow and robin, kingfisher and crow–
Last week, I saw it in the flock of rising
blackbirds, doubled and redoubled
in the silver flashing mirror of the wetlands.
Blackbirds flock up to make messages in the sunset sky (Image: http://www.insightintonature.com/pages/blog.html?y=2010&m=12)
Glory among the caramel scented Ponderosa pines
Glory among the million little brown bats generating heat beneath the bridge ...(Image: moonbattery.com)
Glory among the captive koi... (Image: aero-garden.us)
and the fish ladder journeys of Chinook-- (Image:peculiarvacation.blogspot.com)
glory pours out worlds from the tiny yellow spider on my arm trailing its parachute of airy gauze–(Image: krisgironella.wordpress.com)
your quick whisper
behind me on the trail
that makes me turn around
with a secret smile.
July 19, 2011
What about you? Have you known glory?
beautiful! and yes…in your poem
Seriously??? And you come to my blog and spread such glory there??!! Amazing, and and honour to meet you. My goodness… what an amazing voice you have. I met glory this morning in a job interview – here it is… off the cuff.
dishwasher wanted – and I need a job
in a town where my rural English tongue transports me to a schoolgirl’s anxiety over conjugations
i know the work of life, however, and it’s all pretty much equal
sometimes you must work for your bread
but you always have the opportunity to do it with integrity
he told me of fair job conditions
and lamented hanging up too quickly on a US soldier interested in a bit of cash
“he has to go to war if he doesn’t work here” he said to me, gravity beginning to weigh
he told me of the first time he felt empathy for another – a girl with whom he would later have a child
all because of sharing presence with a moose on a frozen winter river
and identifying with bovine tears
and even if I don’t get the job, and never eat there for the exorbitant prices
I have gained today from having met him
sometimes glory hides in the most unassuming places
That was pleasant to my soul. =)