find poetry

I admit it’s kind of cheating to find poetry in a poetry book.

Brace yourself for this one, it’s religious. It’s about trust. And it’s a theological argument against intelligent design.

The Avowal

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air,
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.

Denise Levertov, The Stream and the Sapphire

I was summoned to jury duty this week, which provided me with another moment of poetry. I’ll need to elaborate on this later, but now I’m late for work.

There must be, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to press on.

Here’s a poetic moment I noticed on Friday.

On Friday, I left work at the usual time and spent about an hour at the book store. After that, I walked about a mile to my car, and while I was standing at the light on 12th and Jackson, about four hundred bicyclists rode up to a stop just to my left. It was a gorgeous evening, and I’d noticed that quite a few folks were making a point of socializing outside. This rather scruffy mix of bike commuters and alternative transportation enthusiasts inspired me. There were recumbant bikes. There were tandem bikes, and a unicycle. There were bikes made of two frames welded together so they towered over traffic. There were spandex bike shorts, there were cut offs, there were sun glasses, there were helmets, there were curls.

They all waited at the stop light, talking, but so much more quietly than the cars normally lined up there. Eventually, the light changed and they began to pedal out into the intersection, crossing in front of a long bus. They poured past, almost silently, while all the drivers and pedestrians looked on, and then the bus driver began honking her horn and giving the cyclists two thumbs up, and then lots of cars started honking supportively as well.

It left me with the feeling that we may be on the verge of something better.

It turns out this group rides on the last friday of each month. http://seattlecriticalmass.org