Longing (To Be There)

I have been kept from the actual Park too much this year, spending time instead online, elsewhere, doing research on it where there's better bandwidth!  This is a photo from April, our Poets on Earth event.

But in planning this year's "Blanket and a Basket of Chow" (I was too busy tearing up Oaktoberfest to even post the event here), I found my sentiments perfectly expressed by the very busy Ina Coolbrith. Imagine her stuck at her day job, setting up our first library, pinching pennies and time to care for her mother and the three girls kids in her charge – not her own. Imagine her looking out the window onto crowded streets, and

LONGING.

    O aimless fret of household tasks!

O chains that bind the hand and mind—

    A fuller life my spirit asks!

For there the grand hills, summer-crowned,

    Slope greenly downward to the seas;

One hour of rest upon their breast

    Were worth a year of days like these.

Their cool, soft green to ease the pain

    Of eyes that ache o’er printed words;

This weary noise – the city’s voice,

    Lulled in the sound of bees and birds.

For Eden’s life within me stirs,

    And scorns the shackles that I wear;

The man-life grand – pure soul, strong hand,

    The limb of steel, the heart of air!

And I could kiss, with longing wild,

    Earth’s dear brown bosom, loved so much,

A grass-blade fanned across my hand,

    Would thrill me like a lover’s touch.

The trees would talk with me; the flowers

    Their hidden meanings each make known—

The olden lore revived once more,

    When man’s and nature’s heart were one!

And as the pardoned pair might come

    Back to the garden God first framed,

And hear Him call at even-fall,

    And answer, ‘Here am I,’ unshamed—

So I, from out these toils, wherein

    The Eden-faith grows stained and dim,

Would walk, a child, through nature’s wild,

    And hear His voice and answer Him.

Ina Coolbrith in 1875, from Geri Walton's wonderful blog.

In other news, I joined the Ina Coolbrith Circle, which was started by her in 1919!