go to
some foreign place,
Juarez, say,
in Mexico,
and listen
to a large woman,
a powerful
laughing mother,
talk about
her children
crawling bare assed
on the dirt floor,
and about the way
roses grow
trellised on
an adobe wall,
and then
try to write it down
in a letter to a friend,
in English –
try to catch
the words
as she said them
until you recognize
there is no way
– no way at all –
to do it
except to take
your friend by the hand,
returning to Juarez,
and go to the woman,
the laughing woman,
and yes,
humbly,
listen
with awe.
~ Arthur Powers, “If You Would Read the Bible” from EchotheoReview
Notes: Poem Source – 3quarksdaily.com. Photo: George Marks
Live & Learn 
Beautiful poem on a Sunday morning David and such a cute darling
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It is Kamal. Thank you.
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Beautiful for a Sunday morning, Thankyou x love barbara x
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Thanks Barbara. It is.
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I’m there – in Juarez, captured by delight.
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Yes. Me too.
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Awe is one of those words we’ve mostly misplaced. Maybe it’s just misplaced in North America but alive and well in Juarez. A photograph of my six-week old grandson Calvin smiling in the arms of his mother yesterday reminds me this morning that some things cross all walls. Thank you for sharing this, David.
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Calvin smiling in the arms of his mother. This is something Gordon. Thanks for sharing.
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David, I’m hoping to update the re-blog your post with the photo of Calvin. It’s not been a good technical day!
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🙂 Laughing…
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Gordon, if I wasn’t such a terribly generous person (:)) I would now be jealous! What a picture you paint.
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Reblogged this on Views from the Edge and commented:
David Kanigan’s lovely post of Arthur Powers’ poem and the picture of the infant alligned this morning with the photograph of my grandson Calvin smiling with his mother north of the border.
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Is it the passion enflamed by love that we most respond to? The beauty of something described in one’s original tongue? The raw immediacy of a moment that, once passed, will never come again? Love this, pal. Happy Sunday…may you make a beautiful memory today….
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The raw immediacy of a moment. THAT.
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i love, love this and am a sucker for babies and their mamas
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Smiling. Who isn’t!?!
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So true…
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..brings tears to my eyes…how lovely!
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It is! Thanks.
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What a wonderful place to land ❤️
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It is!
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That Juarez mama is living a rich life. On so many levels.
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Yes. So humble. So human. So rich…
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Had a full ‘singing’ (choral) day and therefore, ‘Sunday’ has, for once, escaped me – Luckily I can come back on this very early Wednesday night/morning and delight myself – feed my heart with this ‘delicious’ baby (yours?) and those magic words. Thank You David – this is, as so often, food for the soul too. Me living, as a white person, together in a huge city with its melting pot of all nationalities, beliefs, colours, opinions and having visited Mexico (when a white, blonde woman was not a sight to be seen often), this speaks to me on so many levels.
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Smiling. It is beautiful and touched me similarly Kiki.
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Sorry, obviously NOT YOUR baby…. 🙂 Should go bck to bed…. This was written at way before get-up time here in France
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that was lovely ……. thank you for sharing David
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It is, thanks Debi. Welcome back…
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🙂
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