Scroll for words to the poem. || In the midst of the coronavirus scare, and all of my heavy discussion about socialism, I decided to post a reading of a favourite poem of mine (the first one I ever memorized) by Gerard Manley Hopkins: "God'…
Scroll for words to the poem. || In the midst of the coronavirus scare, and all of my heavy discussion about socialism, I decided to post a reading of a favourite poem of mine (the first one I ever memorized) by Gerard Manley Hopkins: "God's Grandeur." Beauty calms and heals. No matter how bad it gets, it does nobody any good to give into the sensationalism and hysteria. Do we always just feel and fear everything we are told to feel and fear?
This felt "on theme" with the socialism things because it's a poem fundamentally about hope -- about no matter how weird and hard and dark things get, the sun comes up and brings a new days worth facing and fighting for. It speaks to the weariness of humanity, and our increasing distance from nature. We need to know that we are fighting FOR something--for goodness, beauty, truth--not just fighting against things.
Yes, this poem hinges on a theme of faith, as much of the great works of history do. But it offers much to even the person without faith--it's beautiful, it's true, and it hearkens to the higher and transcendent - something we all crave. We deprive ourselves of the heights of human accomplishment if we write things off because they have religious themes.
It occurs to me that I post at the risk of this seeming cliched. In certain circles, this poem is so often quoted or used to indicate your "education" and "depth." But it also occurs to me that many more people have never heard or read it, and that's why I post anyway. It's beautiful and worth sharing for a new audience that may not know it.
I love that the birds (occasional peacock, too) and the rain decided to feature.
I am also finishing a poem about Holodomor which I hope to publish in this #SocialismSongs series at some point.
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This is part of an ongoing "song theme" series I'll be doing throughout 2020 with regular commentary. ..
