Welcome to my blog!

The name comes from the Old English word (sabat), which comes to us through Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. It's origin is "to rest", and is etymologically connected to Sabbath and Sabbatical. It seemed appropriate... given my current time of transition. This blog allows a place for personal reflection, shares my whereabouts and happenings, but most importantly - it is a vehicle for your reactions to my submissions. My hope is that, as a group, we have a running dialog pertaining to those things that really matter.

I promise to read each post, but please know that replies may be sporadic and/or delayed. For my plans in the near-future will frequently have me "out of pocket", or I may just need to escape the day-to-day deluge of electronic ping pong . But feel free to submit a post. We are all traveling together on this journey to understand, called life; and each perspective is important.

Let's keep in touch as we share the journey!

Be well,

Sam

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Contemplative Poetry

I have been planning a solo backpacking trip to the middle of nowhere.  I had planned on beginning it soon... but I was holding out to see if a break in the heat is forthcoming.  Regardless - I will be taking copies of five poems with me.  I will read (multiple times), contemplate, think, and record my thoughts about a single poem each day.  My hope is that by focusing on one poem for an entire day, that my thinking will be directed toward depth in lieu of breadth.  I have put together a short list of poem possibilities, but I am definitely interested in your suggestions.  I will be posting the final choices before heading into the woods.  I treasure your submissions.
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownAugust 12, 2010 at 2:52 PM

    I think waiting for a break in the heat is smart, good thinking for reducing risk. Where are you planning for the middle of nowhere to be?
    This is not a poem suggestion, but a book suggestion.
    I have just finished a book called Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard by brothers Chip & Dan Heath. Everybody should read it. I checked it out from the MP library. The scenarios in it are very up to date, applicable, and in the back there's a site address which, among other things, has brief podcasts on specific topics, including Switch for Personal Change. That site is www.switchthebook.com/resources. The book is easy to read, not a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo, and it's easy to take and use. The very first scenario grabbed me because the man's name was familiar, Don Berwick. Finally, it came to me--this is the current Medicare/Medicaid Secretary for the president, a man with whom Allen has worked, etc. He, Don, changed something in hospitals around the country that saved 100,000 lives with limited money & staff, using the technique in Switch. Allen was at the event where this was launched. The technique can be used in any sort of situation where change is desired. Read it, or do so when I turn it back in!

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  2. Sam TreadawayAugust 13, 2010 at 5:06 AM

    Thanks Martha. I have heard of the Don Berwick story. This book is a definite read for me... while I pray for some cooler weather.

    Oh, and the middle of nowhere for me will either be the Pisgah National Forest or the Birkhead Mountains Wilderness area.

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  3. E. HauberAugust 14, 2010 at 6:45 PM

    So, I have been pondering this for a few days. I keep coming back to my two favorite poems. "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, not necessarily a contemplative poem and a bit perhaps depressing at the end, but it has such beautiful imagery: "the spellbound horses walking warm
    Out of the whinnying green stable
    On to the fields of praise"
    Not sure why I love that so much, but I do.

    My other all time favorite is "God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins. I really love his poetry. There is so much in there. I love his faith in the "dearest deepest freshness deep down things."

    I look forward to seeing what you read and hope that the weather breaks soon. I am so looking forward to cool evenings.

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  4. Sam TreadawayAugust 16, 2010 at 7:50 PM

    Thanks Esther,

    I was not familiar with Hopkins, but I have enjoyed reading a number of his poems today.

    So many poems... so little time...

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  5. UnknownAugust 18, 2010 at 7:10 AM

    Sam, I could list several poems I love from this book; here’s one of them.

    David Robinson tells us that Henry Ware Jr. criticized Emerson for abandoning the idea of a personal and paternal God and replacing it with a “mere abstraction.” Ware believed that made worship impossible. On the contrary, I am drawn to this mystery of Life, as abstract as it may be, and note how I experience Life within myself. I’m “like a landscape I’ve studied at length…” and yes, how “I want to unfold.”

    From Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, transl Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy:

    I’m too alone in the world, yet not alone enough to make each hour holy. I’m too small in the world, yet not small enough to be simply in your presence, like a thing – just as it is.

    I want to know my own will and to move with it. And I want, in the hushed moments when the nameless draws near, to be among the wise ones – or alone.

    I want to mirror your immensity. I want never to be too weak or too old to bear the heavy, lurching image of you.

    I want to unfold. Let no place in me hold itself closed, for where I am closed, I am false. I want to stay clear in your sight.

    I would describe myself like a landscape I’ve studied at length, in detail; like a word I’m coming to understand; like a pitcher I pour from at mealtime; like my mother’s face; like a ship that carried me when the waters raged.

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  6. Sam TreadawayAugust 18, 2010 at 7:50 PM

    Thanks so much for sharing this Hugh. I have read numerous quotes from Rilke's writings, but now I know that I must explore his poetry and lyrical prose. This embodies all the qualities of the contemplative poem. Very thoughtful, and thought provoking.

    Thanks again!

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