Attending to the Ordinary

Here is a beautiful poem that captures the ability to see the miraculous in the everyday, ordinariness of our lives, by the poet (and my dear friend) Jenny Jiang. She will be one of the presenters at our upcoming mini-conference on August 22nd called Intersections: A dialogue on art and faith. To find out more about the conference, visit the church website (link on the right).

Psalm 66:16

How will I tell of all your works? This afternoon
I walked on a path. First I heard the snap of green
walnuts raining around me and then I looked
for the squirrel scrambling across the long arms of a tree.
My telling is the shreds of white nutmeat
on the dark bone of shell.
The littered mess I leave beneath me.
What can I say but I’ve eaten again.
The sun has held the earth, the earth the tree,
the tree again this fruit and I have ripped it
and eaten and sent pieces to ping
the littered music of almost
the only hallelujah I know
ringing on the path beneath me.

(Previously published in Poetry Now, January, 2009. Used by permission of the author)