Calling for poems, please.

[lynnez59]

So, my reverend got me to agree to lead a vespers (our 30 minute Wednesday service that's very much based in reflection) and my week is next week. I have it mostly planned out but I feel like I need a third poem or reading after my spoken reflection and I'm wondering if anyone here has any recommendations.

I'm specifically looking for poems about

Comments

[goddessdster]

Mary Olver's "The Wild Geese" is a personal favorite:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

If this has been used before (and who cares? It's a brilliant poem), much of her work combines the love of a changing natural world to a sense of self. I'm also quite fond of Billy Collins's work because it uses simple language and imagery to reflect depth. Another favorite is Mark Strand. If you're interested, I'll hunt up a couple of his that I like.

[lynnez59]

As I was looking through some of the poetry anthologies I had collected in college I discovered I have several poems of Olivers and Collins (and in the books I borrowed from Rev. Jeanne).

Thanks for the rec. I think I found something that works that was right under my nose. Now if I could just figure outnif if made the service to short or long. Have I mentioned I'm uber nervous?