Lightly Child, Lightly

~ Live & Learn


The hen flings a single pebble aside
with her yellow, reptilian foot.
Never in eternity the same sound—
a small stone falling on a red leaf.

The juncture of twig and branch,
scarred with lichen, is a gate
we might enter, singing.

The mouse pulls batting
from a hundred-year-old quilt.
She chewed a hole in a blue star
to get it, and now she thrives. …
Now is her time to thrive.

Things: simply lasting, then
failing to last: water, a blue heron’s
eye, and the light passing
between them: into light all things
must fall, glad at last to have fallen.

—  Jane Kenyon, “Things” in “The Best Poems of Jane Kenyon: Poems”

Notes:

  • Photo: DK @ Daybreak. 5 am. May 16, 2022. 61° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. More photos from that morning here.
  • Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

24 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly”

  4. If not for the Crucifix, this could be a photo of God.. a Great Blue heron, a waterfall, a baby girl pink and baby boy blue sky, and then, a poetic reminder, too, via Jane Kenyon of John Paul II quoting Dostoevsky’s Prince Myshkin, “Beauty will save the world.” This is what he meant. It does, and it will. Wow, DK.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. I can hear that water burbling as it tumbles over the spillway. The roseate light of dawn breaking, the statuesque quality of the bird, all of it a symphony, pal…

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply