In this American time of turmoil and strife, Pete Seeger singing “How Can I Keep from Singing?” restores my faith that “no storm can shake my inmost calm” (Robert Lowry, 1869). RIP, Pete. We’re listening.
…L
…I
…G
…H
…T
For ten
Hours
Power
Was off
With the
Storm.
After
Sunset
We lit a
Candle
In each
Room.
The fire
From the
Grate
Kept
Us all
Warm:
We each
Prayed
No one
Else
Came to
Harm…
– Steve Shoemaker, Dec. 4, 2013
Compare the spirit of Steve’s poem with that of the survivalist at last February’s public dialogue on guns who challenged the audience to think hard about the time when the little girl from next door comes to your home because you’ve stockpiled food and her family hasn’t prepared for the catastrophe. He was making the argument against gun control. “Ufdah!” as we say here in Minnesota. There are many rooms, but we all live in the ONE house. “In my Father’s house are many rooms.”
Light a candle and say a prayer.
Leah Thomas and family
ODE TO LEAH THOMAS
Like light
Like joy
Like sun breaking through a storm
Her laughter
Brightens the room
Breaks the ice
Fills it with peace.
Mama walks lightly
Amid the trials and the cares
Quick as a black panther
Steady as a turtle
She coos the tenderness of
the turtle dove
walks with the strength of a lion.
With steady hand
With sturdy faith
And clarity of mind
She laughs
And soars her craft
Through clouds and storms
To lead us on and through.
Like light,
Like joy,
Like sun breaking through a storm,
She laughs,
She brightens the room,
She wipes our tears
She fills us with her peace.
– Gordon C. Stewart, Executive Director, Legal Rights Center, Feb. 1, 2005.
There is a warning whisper in the wind.
The birds have heard and gather on a wire
to watch. My old ears cannot hear much sound
without my aids. I search and finally find
new batteries: the wind becomes a roar!
I quickly dial them down from music to
a conversation: whistles, whines and more
now wind around our house. The clouds race to
go there from here, and here from there. I see
the colors change from white to grey. The snow
begins to fall and white returns in swirls. The ice
forms on the twigs–the trees begin to know
they’re in a struggle with the wind. They try
to bend, and hope the promise was a lie.
– Verse “The Promise of a Storm” – Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Feb. 22, 2013
green storm clouds – Kay Stewart photography
Tonight the storm blew in
Darkness covering the deep.
Green-sky funnel clouds
threatening everything that is
…
passed over, passed over
blew on past
while beauty rarely seen swept in
as morning follows night.
…
yellow puffs of mercy,
puffs of wonder,
yellow cotton-candy light
puffed across the sky
…
pushed by first-light breeze
that cooled the skin
refreshed the air and
took my breath away!
– Gordon C. Stewart, Mother’s Day, 2004
Yellow cotton-candy clouds – Kay Stewart Photography
Views from the Edge 