Saturday, March 14, 2015

"Deep in the Quiet Wood" of Life and Poetry

James Weldon Johnson, American Poet (1871-1938)

This month is a busy one. And I don't mean just "busy"; I mean crazy-busy, staying up until 3:00 AM nearly every night, working all weekend--that kind of busy. I adore teaching online literary analysis classes at Brave Writer, but the time and effort and brain invested in teaching a single work for a month to a group of 15 students who write six assignments a week...it's overwhelming and wonderful and amazing and exhausting. We're reading and discussing Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca this month, and it's all of these...and more. ;)

I have wonderful notes on attending the 20th Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea which featured an interview with Joyce Carol Oates, but they still need to be typed up before I can share them. I also attended a wonderful session with Doug Brunk who graduated from PLNU with me and another local writer on getting our work published; I have notes for that session to type up, too.

But today, with at least ten hours of work before me, I can only pop in to share a gorgeous poem that greeted me this morning in my inbox, courtesy of The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day e-mails. Weekday offerings present us with the newest contemporary poems while weekend e-mails include classic poems.

At PLNU, I did a huge research paper on the Harlem Renaissance, and my heart has been with these extraordinary poets and writers since I turned 21. So to see a poem by one of the foremost poets of that age in my box was a lovely surprise, and reading the poem refreshed my tired soul.

Enjoy!!!

Deep in the Quiet Wood

James Weldon Johnson
Isn't this poem amazing! I leave it with you, and encouragement to
"catch, yet faint, elusive strains" of beauty this very day.

With warm thoughts of "heavenly peace/ And holy harmonies,"


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