Particularly in our current environment, one of undeclared class warfare that pits the oligarchs against everyone else on every field—economics, environment, education, politics, religion, resource allocation—I struggle with maintaining any kind of spiritual, emotional and mental balance. So I make a conscious effort to absorb and honor the beauty and grace in my daily life.
As I do, I follow the prescription of an old photography
professor—when something strikes me, I also try to look around for another
perspective, to see if there’s not something else about it equally beautiful.
Viz:
I went out to glory in the dogwood in my cluster, which of
course were spectacular.
But so, too, was the shadow it threw on the sidewalk.
This reminds me of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty”, today’s
entry for National Poetry Month. Just the first line opens me up for the joy
and the loveliness that’s all around us, in both nature and the work people do
to make our lives easier.
“Pied Beauty”
Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout
that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and
trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle,
dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
©2026 Bas Bleu
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