Poetry

I actually did not know that last Wednesday, April 25th was national Poetry Day! I love poetry and I love to write poetry so I was disappointed that this day got past me without my knowledge. However, as fate would have it, I had a small Brunch that morning for some friends, one of whom is blind, and I thought it would be fun to read some poetry aloud, which we did. And one of the poems I chose was the poem, "Keep a Poem in your Pocket" by Beatrice Schenk de Regiers which seemed to be the theme for the day. The poem says:

"Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed
********************
The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you're in bed.
***********************
So-----
Keep a poem in your pocket
and a poem in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

I actually have three favorite poems. One is "Daffodils" (William Wordsworth) which, at one time, I could recite by heart. Another favorite, with a similar theme, is " The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (William Butler Yeats) and when I was in Ireland with my mother, sister and niece...we saw this isle from a distant shore, and my sister, Maureen, recited the entire poem from memory. It must speak to our Irish souls.Both these poems paint a space of wonder and tranquility to behold at the moment but, equally important, to take the image with you to bring joy when you are in places that are not as lovely as these.  A third poem that I love is "Ulysses" (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) especially the last 26 lines that begin, "There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail..... In this poem, Ulysses is saying that, though his life is coming to an end, he has at least one more good sail in him, and he is going to continue on in life doing what he has always loved to do; that age will not deter from living his life to the fullest until he is gone. I like this sentiment. I too wish to live life to the fullest until I can no more, and enjoy doing the things I love to do; one of which is writing poetry. So I will add one of my most recent poems that is neither thoughty (as my Dad would say) nor profound...perhaps just one we can all relate to, and one that was fun to write.

THE CLUTTERED TABLE BY THE DOOR

Oh cluttered table by the door
Keeper of family treasures
And things that suddenly appear
Placed here upon your table top
Car keys
Overdue books
Letters to be sent
Bills to be paid
What else has been laid
Upon your table top?
 What other trinkets
Besides the dust gathering here?
Invitations
Salutations
A letter from a friend (rare)
Rubber bands
Ball point pens
Assorted change
Ah, such a range
Of meaningless clutter
Oh brother!
Just so much stuff
To put away
To get ready for another day....
When other things
Find their way to your table top.

Another Birthday

Today I thought I would talk about birthdays having just celebrated mine over the Easter weekend; actually, Good Friday to be exact. Throughout my life, I have also had my birthday fall on Easter, so I have had to celebrate my day with "the good news" and the Easter Bunny. These days I am fortunate to share it with my eight year old granddaughter, Sara, who now has a birthday one day before mine, so  we celebrate our special day together. As I was thinking about birthdays, I went back in my memory to think about some of those special birthdays that were memorable for me. The first one I remember is my own eighth year birthday, only because I have a picture of all the kids who came, standing in front of our first house in Cincinnati, Ohio. We look like quite a motley group, and I also notice that I invited my childhood arch enemy, standing next to my best friend. Mother insisted on doing that back then to keep the peace which was quite smart of her, actually. The second memorable birthday was when I turned 16 and I could drive. Little did I know that the bloom would soon be off the rose as I then became the chauffeur for all of my younger 4 sisters, and the errand person for my mother. We had an eight passenger station wagon, and I became every one's ride to school, and  the means of travel for my friends who did not yet have "wheels." It was somewhat like having a summer cottage...friends came out of the woodwork! The next year was memorable in that I did not get what I asked for; instead getting a set of golf clubs with lessons at our club which I had little interest in at the time. I even skipped the Saturday morning lessons, instead, picked up my best friend and went out to breakfast. Dad always wondered why I was not a better player after those "lessons." Today, I am so grateful for those golf clubs as I have enjoyed the game  tremendously with my husband and friends all my adult life. Skipping forward some years until my 50th when we had a big shindig with friends and family, and our neighbors put up, in our yard, one of those gigantic commercial signs that read, "We think it is nifty that Gretta is turning 50!" Funny and fun! At 60, I was vacationing in California and, by mail, my daughter sent me a special book where she had compiled e-mails, testimonials and special greetings from all of my family and friends etc. I sat there at the restaurant reading, laughing and crying! What a treasure this book is! Sixty-five was elegantly celebrated  at a beautiful restaurant here with  family and friends in attendance, and then for birthday 70, I returned to Cincinnati where my Summit classmates and I celebrated our birthdays together at the beautiful home of one of our classmates, Florance Connelly Koetters who provided an elegant celebration for all of us. Through all the years I have had, to honor my life, I have tried to remember all those people who came before me, to help make my life what it is today. I love what Warren Buffett refers to as "the ovarian lottery," in which he says that he won the lottery the day that he was born. I also won the lottery!

Enough!

Pictures/ back yard

ENOUGH

Just one tulip bloomed this Spring
But this was enough for me
I need just one perfect example
Of God's miracle, to see
How perfect is the Universe
In all its majesty
Just one bloom
One blade of grass
One single tree
That is enough for me.....       Poem by Gretta Barclay

SPRING GLADNESS

The first buds of March

Appeared this morning, soft green

The air smells of spring

In the back yard tree

The doves have returned to nest

The grass smells of spring.

Everywhere in twos

Creatures of the earth dancing....

The world made new. Spring!

Gretta Barclay/Mo Conlan, March 28, 2003

IRISH HERITAGE

THIS IS MY IRISH GRANDMOTHER FOR WHOM I AM NAMED

Growing up as Margretta Marie O'Conlan, the most celebrated day in my house was St. Patrick's Day. Irish music would begin playing early in March in anticipation of THE GREAT DAY; Mother would begin honing her rendition of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," on the piano with all of us singing along, and on the actual day, my sisters and I would go off to school with green ribbons in our hair, and a green carnation (brought home for each of us by Dad) pinned to our school uniform. On the eve of St. Patrick's Day, my father would go off to The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick's Day Dinner dressed in his Irish finery of black tails and black top hat. It was the day for the Irish indeed, and with the O'Conlans and Kinsellas, we claimed a close heritage to the "old sod," proud as an authentic Irish Shamrock. Now, every St. Patrick's Day, I get out the historical rendition of our Irish heritage called "The Cooke Book"  written by my Aunt Leona Garrity. Here I read, give recognition to, and honor  my brave and determined ancestors who came before me, and who are quite responsible for the character and richness of my life today. I never want to forget who came before me to help make me who I am today.
Our family's journey to America began with my great-great grandfather coming to America as a stow-away on a boat after fleeting the British who were about to arrest him for teaching Catholic doctrine along the Irish hedgerows in County Cork.  Eventually the rest of his family made their way to America and settled in upstate New York. For me, the story picks up with the life of my grandmother for whom I was named, and even though I never knew her, I feel as though I know her through the pages of "The Cooke Booke." Surprising to me is the fact that before taking a different path, my grandmother entered the Religious life with The Daughters of Charity expecting to give her whole life over to the service of God. People who knew her, said that Gretta (her name all her life) was sensitive, intelligent and deeply spiritual. But, as fate would have it, Gretta decided that this life was not for her and eventually married my grandfather, Thomas L. Conlan whom I also never knew, nor did I know that they honeymooned on Mackinac Island, a beautiful northern Michigan spot that has been treasured by our family for years. Most important to me,  is reading about the character of my fore bearers who were stanch people of faith, passionate, determined, brave and righteous and had that great sense of Irish humor.  Often times they did things to preserve their faith and way of life that caused them pain and hardship, but was not a reason not to do what they believed in. Coming before me, they have been models in my life and have shown me the way to live my life. Like so many Irish, many of them were witty and wise; story-tellers and writers; passionate people who often would weep with emotion, or sing Irish ballads with gusto. I feel so grateful to have inherited such a lot as these, and am honored to continue the precious traditions and values of the Irish people.

FAIR TRADE SHOPPING

For the last year, I have been volunteering at a Fair Trade Store near where I live, called Cross Roads. Having lived in a third world country, and living with African people who struggled hard just to have the necessities of life like food, shelter, transportation, health care, education, I have become passionate with the mission of Fair Trade which has the intention of providing a fair, living wage to the producers of the products we buy from them. Some of these products we think of as necessities in this country like coffee, chocolate and sugar etc. And when you think of the people who must work the longest and the hardest to provide these "luxuries" for us, it is those producers in those 3ed world countries who are often paid the least amount of money. Enter Fair Trade and its mission to provide a fair, sustainable, living wage to these producers so that they can just live. So what are the reasons to buy Fair Trade products? Let me give some reason here for all of us to think about:
1. To support a system that benefits the poor. The mainstream trading system is exploiting and failing the poor in 3ed world countries.
2. Support a trade system that pays a just and fair price to the originators of products around the world. These are often the people who do the hardest part of the work.
3. Make international trade more democratic. International trade is mostly undemocratic, controlled by large corporations for their greatest profit.
4. Help bring justice and empowerment to women and girls. Women & girls do most of the work, and except for Fair Trade Cooperatives, are treated like second class citizens.
5.Help guarantee a just and fair price for products, i.e. coffee, irregardless of fluctuating prices on the open market. With Fair Trade, growers are guaranteed a minimum fair price for their products. The Fair Trade minimum price is calculated to cover the costs of sustainable production and sustainable livelihood. This minimum price does not fall below this minimum price when the world markets fall. This allows for long-term planning and sustainable production practices. It is a partnership between producers and Fair Trade Organizations. Producers can also ask for up to 60 %-financing. It also provides a living wage that people can count on.
6. Promote human rights and dignity for each person in the process of trade. Fair Trade is not a charity; it is simple justice.
7. Stops paying so much money to people between the producers and the consumers; the intermediaries who often exploit the growers and producers. Non-Fair Trade coffee, i.e. can change hands up to 150 times before it reaches your cup. Often, the producers are paid just 2 cents on a $3.00 cup of coffee! Fair Trade products, by contrast, are usually sold directly from the in-country cooperative and the manufacturers.
8. Help protect the earth. Most for-profit traders put farmers, producers, social and environmental concerns last. Fair Trade puts them first. Any co-op that works through Fair Trade Organizations must have as one of its priorities, to protect the environment.
9. Help end child exploitation. Millions of children world-wide are exploited, trafficked and enslaved by adults for money, and many are injured or die as a result. This is not allowed in a Fair Trade Coop.
If you want to know more about Fair Trade, go to: http://www.fairtradeerresources.org or http://fairtradeprinciples.org  In the meantime, look for the Fair Trade labels at the store, and spread the word~

FEEDING THE BIRDS

On Thursday of this past week, I attended to one of my New Year's Resolutions, to feed the birds this winter, by having a Brunch and then having my girlfriends make pine-cone bird feeders. Like Tom Sawyer, I thought that I would get some of my friends to help me "paint the fence!" And, from the pictures, as you can see, we all had so much fun getting our hands full of lard and peanut butter, rubbing this mix into pine-cones and then rolling them in bird seed. From an article I read, the single biggest danger to birds in the winter is not enough food to eat, so now I feel that we have done a little bit to help those two winged creatures of flight that bring me so much joy. And, yesterday, I trudged outside in my new sturdy boots to put my bird feeders in the trees,selecting trees and branches where I can watch them from my windows. A winter delight!  Then,after tending to the birds, I took my once a year, lone jaunt into the countryside to enjoy the new fallen snow alight in meadows, across fields, over barns, in pastures with horses and cattle, sheep and swine, and on fences, trees and lakes. I usually load up my car CD player with my favorite tapes, and head out east on one-lane country roads which are still icy and snow-covered, and roll along the flat lands of the prairie and the occasional hill and dale to my heart's content. Along the way, I stop and take pictures as you can see below. One of my favorite songs is Susan Boyle's, "Just a Perfect Day," and I must have played it loud and long for it was indeed, just a perfect day.

Watching Things Grow

I really think that there is something fabulous about watching things grow up from  the ground, or in this case, out of a planted pot. During the winter, I always buy plants that I can watch get bigger, materialize, and finally become something quite beautiful. When I was first married and we had bought our first little house, the first thing I wanted to do was have a garden. My husband who grew up on a farm, and knew everything about growing things in the ground was not quite so excited, but encouraged me with interest to plant those seeds in the spring. You cannot believe how astonished I was, and elated when I saw those first little green shoots coming up. I ran into the house to tell Mike with such enthusiasm that my husband thought that maybe I had just won the lottery. You see, I grew up in the city, and never once in all of my growing up years did I ever plant anything, and then watch it grow. Like so many other city children of my generation, I had no idea where our food came from; it just ended up on our table for each meal, and I never questioned it or thought about it. Today, I am close to the farm where my husband grew up, and we now have a farm of our own. It is a real joy for me to watch things grow out here in the country; to see the rows and rows of corn and soybeans come up after planting in the spring, but just as important to me is my own little garden at my kitchen window that I watch grow over time, and bring such joy and delight to me on winter days.

This is what is growing from the simple pot above! Maybe I do have a green thump, after all!