Thursday, December 31, 2015

Poetry Friday: The Hours

The year of the earthquake, a friend sent me this book, A Flame of Faith, by Hazel Littlefield, published in 1972, for my birthday.  It's signed by the author for a friend called Amy, and Hazel wishes for Amy "that all her days may be filled with loyal friendships of loyal friends, happy work, good health, courage."  These seem excellent wishes for the new year. 

Here is one of the poems from the book.

The Hours

Shout with assurance to the morning skies,
"The Lord of all creation made me too,
And all my need abundantly supplies;
This day is mine and I shall live it through
Delighting in the gift of every hour;
Not doomed with dullness nor with fear of death,
But life unfolding like a sun-drenched flower
Suffused with the Divine, the Living Breath."

The hours bloom and wither and are tossed,
Uncounted, into swirling centuries,
Like myriad stars in mighty galaxies,
Merged in a brighter whole but never lost.
Time, unrelenting, plucks them one by one;
Breathe while you may their sweetness in the sun.

Hazel Littlefield

Mary Lee has the first roundup of 2016.

5 comments:

Tabatha said...

"Merged in a brighter whole but never lost." Happy sigh. Thanks for sending this, Ruth. You picked just the right one for today, and those are excellent wishes for the new year. May you have them all!

Mary Lee said...

This day is mine and I shall live it through
Delighting in the gift of every hour

Seems like a good thing to remember every single morning of every day we're given!

Happy New Year!

Diane Mayr said...

Breathe while you may their sweetness in the sun

Good advice! Have a great 2016!

Tara said...

Oh, I love this:
This day is mine and I shall live it through
Delighting in the gift of every hour;

Happy New Year, Ruth!

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing!...In addition to the lines already noted, I connected from the very start with the word "assurance." Not that I especially want to "shout" it, per-say, each morning, but with all the turmoil in the world, it is good to have the Blessed Assurance of being purposely loved into having a place in the world by Someone Who chose and knows me. As a whole, the poem speaks to me of the name of your site. No haphazardly-existing towns, or residents! We're here on purpose for a purpose. Thank you for your 2016 benedictions and the gift of your poetic sensibilities! God bless you!