Get My Book on Kindle Free This Week
I'm Giving Away My Book Free on Kindle This Week
Dear Ones,
I hope this finds you all well amid swiriling uncertainty as the virus spreads.
I don't know about you, but I keep finding myself sucked into the vortex of news, and my attention span is too fragmented for diving deeply into a novel or narrative nonfiction right now, even though I have time for that type of reading. But poetry has been speaking powerfully to me, soothing my jangled spirits, grounding me. I'm grateful for those writing it.
I've been thinking about what I can share in the way of hope and good news with others right now. In addition to daily poetry prompts, and the Haiku on my website, I realized that I can share the digital version of my book with you for free!
You can receive an electronic Kindle version of Home By Another Road free of charge through Amazon from Sunday the 22nd through Thursday the 26th, and can download a free Kindle reading app to your computer, smart phone, or tablet if you don't already have one.
Home by Another Road leads us from rough roads through detours and interchanges, finally leading us home. The journey seems quite appropriate in this unsettled time. So please, download a copy of the book, and invite your friends and loved ones to do so, too. [If you read the book and like it, I'd appreciate a review on Amazon or Goodreads.]
Home By Another Road
I can’t tell you how it happens
except to say it does.
This journey from despair to hope
from darkness to light takes place
so gradually, often imperceptible
until you’re on the far side
peering back into the tunnel
you crawled through—
cramped, damp, foreboding.
Somehow you squeezed along its rough sides
inches at a time until you emerged
bruised, scraped, a bit bloody
but wiser, kinder, more resilient
than you ever could’ve imagined.
We are not the same ones
who set out unscathed so long ago.
Pain and trauma, death and violence—
our familiar foes are shot through
the beautiful broken lives we lead.
And yet look at us, here we are
walking home by another road
carrying shards of our dreams
in astounding configurations.
Your resilience is pure miracle—
and if I believe in anything
I believe because of you
who still love—despite everything.
~Cathy Warner
Photo Haiku
For the Stargazer Lily
Your headdress stamens
petal-edged curves, riotous scents
draw me into you
Enjoy all my photo Haikus here
Daily Poetry Prompt
There's still time to receive a daily poetry prompt from me through April 30th and join a virtual community of poetry. Find 47 Fabulous Days of Poetry on Facebook.
POETIC RESOURCES
ABBEY OF THE ARTS: a virtual global online monastery offering pilgrimages, online classes and retreats, reflections, and resources which integrate contemplative practice and creative expression. Founded by Christine Valters Paintner. Join the mailing list, or like Abbey of the Arts on Facebook.
UNFOLDINGLIGHT.NET: A daily reflection rooted in a contemplative, Creation-centered spirituality from Rev. Steve Garnaas-Holmes, who invites readers into a spirit of presence, compassion, justice and delight. Rooted in the Christian story, we hear melodies of many traditions. Join his mailing list, or like Unfolding Light on Facebook.
JOHN O'DONOHUE: Though no longer living,"John's legacy directs our search for intimacy to crucial thresholds: tradition and modernity, past and future, life and death, the visible and the invisible world. At the heart of his beliefs was the premise that ancient wisdom could offer desperately needed nourishment for the spiritual hunger experienced in our modern world." Many libraries carry his books. Poetry is posted on his Facebook page.
Pandemic
by Lynn Unger
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love—
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
~Originally published on Facebook March 11, 2020
*Praise Song for the Pandemic*
Praise be the nurses and doctors, every medical staff bent over flesh to offer care, for lives saved and lives lost, for showing up either way,
Praise for the farmers, tilling soil, planting seeds so food can grow, an act of hope if ever there was,
Praise be the janitors and garbage collectors, the grocery store clerks, and the truck drivers barreling through long quiet nights,
Give thanks for bus drivers, delivery persons, postal workers, and all those keeping an eye on water, gas, and electricity,
Blessings on our leaders, making hard choices for the common good, offering words of assurance,
Celebrate the scientists, working away to understand the thing that plagues us, to find an antidote, all the medicine makers, praise be the journalists keeping us informed,
Praise be the teachers, finding new ways to educate children from afar, and blessings on parents holding it together for them,
Blessed are the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, all those who worry for their health, praise for those who stay at home to protect them,
Blessed are the domestic violence victims, on lock down with abusers, the homeless and refugees,
Praise for the poets and artists, the singers and storytellers, all those who nourish with words and sound and color,
Blessed are the ministers and therapists of every kind, bringing words of comfort,
Blessed are the ones whose jobs are lost, who have no savings, who feel fear of the unknown gnawing,
Blessed are those in grief, especially who mourn alone, blessed are those who have passed into the Great Night,
Praise for police and firefighters, paramedics, and all who work to keep us safe, praise for all the workers and caregivers of every kind,
Praise for the sound of notifications, messages from friends reaching across the distance, give thanks for laughter and kindness,
Praise be our four-footed companions, with no forethought or anxiety, responding only in love,
Praise for the seas and rivers, forests and stones who teach us to endure,
Give thanks for your ancestors, for the wars and plagues they endured and survived, their resilience is in your bones, your blood,
Blessed is the water that flows over our hands and the soap that helps keep them clean, each time a baptism,
Praise every moment of stillness and silence, so new voices can be heard, praise the chance at slowness,
Praise be the birds who continue to sing the sky awake each day, praise for the primrose poking yellow petals from dark earth, blessed is the air clearing overhead so one day we can breathe deeply again,
And when this has passed may we say that love spread more quickly than any virus ever could, may we say this was not just an ending but also a place to begin.
—-Christine Valters Paintner, Abbey of the Arts