Comments on: Of Poetry and Chain Letters https://rebeccabrewsterstevenson.com/2016/04/29/449/ Author of Healing Maddie Brees & Wait, thoughts and practices in waiting on God Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:41:29 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 By: Rebecca Brewster Stevenson https://rebeccabrewsterstevenson.com/2016/04/29/449/#comment-2108 Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:41:29 +0000 https://rebeccabrewsterstevenson.wordpress.com/?p=449#comment-2108 In reply to Jeanne.

Well, this is lovely. I do not in the least mind a response such as this one four years on. Truly, a delight. Thank you for responding and for including this poem. I always love meeting a new poem, and this one is a comfort in times like this one. So nice to “meet” you, too, Jeanne.

]]> By: Jeanne https://rebeccabrewsterstevenson.com/2016/04/29/449/#comment-2107 Fri, 03 Apr 2020 15:43:36 +0000 https://rebeccabrewsterstevenson.wordpress.com/?p=449#comment-2107 A friend of mine sent me a link to your post in lieu of forwarding what is apparently the same inspirational chain e-mail that you received (four years later!), and like your two friends, she included a favorite poem with it — and so I, too, learned a lesson gently. To say “thank you” to you as well, I am sending you the poem that I chose —

“Everything is Going to be All Right”

How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.

Derek Mahon, from “Selected Poems”

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