A breed apart

A pair of eagle statues at Skylands State Park in NJ inspires a reverie on the values and virtues of homeland success: what does it mean to hold onto what is yours? More thoughts and images on looking into 2012, here at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Memorial: on success

Wing craft,
shoulder set against
what past and future enemies
may demand --
each feather burden furnished
to a purpose, burnished
to a light-hard task.
Nothing is easy
to the tested arc;
nothing curves simple
to the proven pilot.
All is the ghastly
potentiality
of the feasible loss,
the hateful failure.
Every superlative mark
enshrines a deeper curse:
the will to prevail.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Blues traveler

A stained glass rendition of the madonna and child at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC launches a jazz meditation on the meaning of Christmas and getting outside yourself. Our final blog before the holidays and a short break -- wishing all of you a wonderful season of cheer with loved ones far and near. Photos and commentary at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Little clover

Leaves upon your head,
how we miss you when we dread
our last best hope.
Little clover --
won't you please roll over
without a grave
and tell us merrily
some thankful thought
that we can save until tomorrow comes.
Clover, clover --
we've asked your mother
where you've gone but she
said ask your father's best friend.
Love, I fear, is a fear
that's painted red.
Clover, soothe yourself --
ease, ease the time.
Your mother's here for you.
Now ease the time.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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The cattle are lowing...

Yes, the Herefords of Valatie, NY, are back -- and they star in their very own manger-side story: how is it that animals played such a prominent part in that first Christmas? Why are animals so much a part of ourselves? Great photos of these spectacular beasts, happy at the holidays, and commentary, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Bovinity

There were cows
in the manger scene --
I am sure on that.
I don't know if they
were careful about their
sounds or of their unambiguous
but nonetheless distinctive cattle scent.
These things I cannot speak for,
their having happened long before I
or any other of you all were ever born;
but one thing I can certainly claim:
I know the cows are gentle,
and gently lowing creatures, and
may have added to that frame,
to that dear picture so ingenuous,
so pallid and so frail
it almost fails but most sustains
where it is weak, like animals' bodies,
limitless though meek.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Marley's ghost revisited

The capitol building on State Street in Albany, NY, provides some ominous and curious faces to take a look into the coming season: how do we glimpse into a man's soul? Is it with a checkbook or a palette? More curious questions and thoughtful images and words, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Comicaria

How did you manage
to get yourself cast
for the everlasting age --
miracles of fate overshadow,
poor ponderances of lives,
so unlike yours --
but the creases and the valleys speak:
he was a man worth something!
how odd was that now, in parody,
your visage vaunts
according to the thoughts
someone or other once had held.
Quixotic, strange --
you'll never know how
two hundred winters tales
have held their changes
on your once illustrious shape.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Heaven and earth

Thar is no rose of swych virtu/as is the rose that bar Jesu. These lines from a 1420 poem inspire not only the poem for today but also provide a backdrop for thoughts about the magnificent Tiffany rose window and other beautiful features of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Albany, NY. Photos and commentary, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

There is no rose

Virtue beyond mortal grace,
and that grace begins with a lowly founding place;
roses are not strong enough
to build upon, but when
they guild a world
with faceted beams, that is a world
worth watching grow to fullness.
Thar is no rose of such virtu
as is the rose that bar Jesu.
Many lights come and go
but none so closely linger
as those we prize
most highly.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Dog day...

Frozen snow sculptures made by a Kinderhook, NY native inspire a meditation on the relationship between dogs and humans and the relationship between humans and the holidays. Thought-provoking commentary and photos of the artwork by Herminio at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Master man

You create me
in the image you best beget
time after time -- although
I am hurdling and longing
to prove you wrong,
I prove you right in every
last regard, engage my dignity,
my alignment with your needs.
Time along the ages, you and I,
we have shaped ourselves
along similar paths and somehow
grown to love the same courses,
same landscapes, the same shady spots;
I am time upon my lapse --
my time is short with you --
if I do not know you as a brother,
then perhaps we are something like.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Long ago, far away

Along with our Christmas theme, we consider the role of the angels at the birth of Christ -- how has this been represented? What can it mean to us everyday people who dwell in the ravages of hustle and bustle? Some comfort and joy to be found, with photos and discussion, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

To sleep

If none have hovered,
none have wavered above,
who knows the fate
who knows what would have come.
A child cries in the night --
many may have heard.
But eaves of wings may interfere
and dampen all the word
and still surround like doves;
this they'll never let from
earnest issuance.
He is guarded and assuaged
by the muffled downbeat
and the faint occipeter,
a semi-soft perimeter,  --
at last he sleeps.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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Glory be

The tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art spurs thought and insight as well as some beautiful photos. Images and text along with the narrative of how we absconded with the purloined photos at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Gloria

How often do we behold
the gentle myths of old,
carved out for us plainly
and close enough for us to reach?
So delicate, they teach us
how to be careful with each other;
so painstaking in their design,
they impugn us not to be cruel.
To make us marvel is within the license
of good art, and sustains
the higher dignity
of man.
Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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'Tis the season

And we have a reason for so many of us who dread the cold to find solace in the approach of winter: there's glory in the little things, the subtle sharpnesses and boldnesses that make the season special. Like red berries piled suddenly in the shape of a tree, like green rushes suddenly transformed by snow and ice, winter enobles even the wild of the outdoors -- think what it can do for the human best in us? Words and images at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

December, mindful

As we climb into this month,
mindful of the absence of its light,
mindful of the little days,
it is cruel to be abrupt,
cruel to be harsh in any way --
it grates against our wind-parched skin
and chastens quite unfairly.
Let us be kinder than ever before
when we are most enclosed.
The ice on the limbs along the road
should melt our seasoned tempers,
each to each, and carry
warmth to our gray souls.
We should rise about the ends
of frost-smoke tendrils
to making better worlds ahead.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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A wild thyme in the Catskills

Evelyn Waugh once wrote that in a place we have loved we should bury a little bit of gold. It seems that in certain places that are well loved, many joyous reminders spring to life -- not just in springtime but all year round. On a visit to the Catskills home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church, we find a scenic spot and also wild reminders of the blessings of rural life. Photos and commentary at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Implacable

Can we meet here
in a few short years,
just to see if the place has changed?
I for one doubt very much it will.
I have nosed about these hills
for most my days now
and found them somewhat implacable,
even abrupt in their refusal
to be altered:
curiously, I would venture
that something small will still remain
of our last visit here, some
fragmentary remembrance will
catch hold and grow,
will yet salute us when we return.

Copyright (c) 2011 Amy Nelson Hahn

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