What Can I Say — Thx Katharine Weinmann, Mary Oliver

All of this today is from my friend Katharine Weinmann (picture & Mary Oliver poem). Katharine is quoting Mary Oliver. And saying other things. Saying other things that I needed to hear this morning.

There is a kind of gloom that I feel as I watch North American politics maneuver. Watch national friendships diminish. Watch petulance rise in power. Trade wars. Physical wars.

This stuff has always been happening, true. And it will continue. But what is new is the scale?

I need poetry for this layer of scale. Many of us do. I need reminders like Katharine offers. Many of us need something that calls out the good in me and in others, even with very hard things.

Bullying power and petulance have impact on the world. They lower the bar. I prefer values and actions rooted in kindness and cooperation — that kind of warriorship is so much more needed than this adolescent downgrade.

I also need thoughtful men — glad to be gathering again tonight Men in Circle, where we have room to listen and learn. There is medicine there. We are a small group. Getting some solid legs over the last three months — reach me if you want to consider participating.

And enjoy the poem and Katharine’s words on her site.

What can I say that I have not said before?
So I’ll say it again.
The leaf has a song in it.
Stone is the face of patience.
Inside the river there is an unfinished story
and you are somewhere in it
and it will never end until it all ends.
Mary Oliver, “What Can I Say”