October 16, 2021

LEAN

 

I like to lean against trees
and feel its wood in my back –
if for just a few minutes.
 
The back of benches in church
work just as well – a chance to
stretch back into the hard of wood.
 
Support, rest, a chance
for a break, to just be me -
a leaning into a solid something. 

But sometimes this happens
when I’m on a cross - when pain – or
a glimpse of death is pushing into me.

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

October    16,  2021 

Thought for the Day

“God speaks in the silence of the heart.  Listening is the beginning of prayer.”

October 15, 2015

 THE  GIRL  

WITH  THE  RED  HAIR  

Does every person have the courage
of the girl with the red hair?  Do I?
 
Do I have the courage to resist lies
and laziness and become a thinker?
 
Do I have the courage to put my life
on the line to save the lives of others?
 
Do I realize that the greatest love means
I am willing to lay down my life for others?
 
Do I realize every country can get sucked
into accepting big lies by the millions? 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

October    15,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“Everybody needs his memories.   They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.” 

 

Saul Bellow

LEAF

 
A raspberry red leaf –
the only one – all others
still green in mid-October.
Why?  Do you really think
God is in on such a surprise?
Do you really think God is in
on the death of a grandmother
two doors down? I wonder
about these things – like the new
baby I saw in Macy’s today.
Yes – but I wonder about deaths.

 

                                                                                        © Andy Costello, Reflections 2021 

October    14,  2021

 

 Thought for the Day

 

“One is always surprised by the drumstroke in Haydn’s ‘Surprise’ Symphony no matter how many times one has heard it, and one is always interested by a poem that genuinely contains a mystery.”

 

T. J. G. Harris,

PN Review

September-October 1993

October  13, 2021

A  PRECIOUS  RING

 

Brass, bronze, platinum, gold, a
ring with some letters engraved on it –
a gift, given in a ceremony, an award,
a graduation, a marriage, recognition,
accomplishment, love, a “Thank you!”
 
Lost, found, forgotten, recovered,
several times in a lifetime – twisted,
turned, sacred, handed to a grandkid
at the time of death – received with
awe and “oooh” – a new, “Thank you!”

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021