Mindful Poetry Gathering - April 27th, 2022

This week for Mindful Poetry Moments we gathered to listen and contemplate the poem "Miracle" by Manuel Iris. Stacy Sims opened our time with a meditation and Manuel Iris, poet and educator, led the reading and response. (You can watch the full recording here and read the full transcript here.)

Community Response Poems

I remember the miracle
by Wade Hopkins


It was 1989
7:57 at the intersection under the fir trees
The pickup truck knew it could make the light
and did
the lumber in the bed, did not
it lay, in a jumbled mess, blocking traffic in every direction

and then it happened
the moms simply materialized
out of the station wagons, the buicks with bench seats, the pontiacs riding low.
these moms went into action, whisked the not inconsiderable pile of wood back into the truck,
 and disappeared into the mist.


I stood in stunned silence, waiting for the bus
it was 7:58 at the intersection under the fir trees
you could hear a rain drop
it was as if nothing at all had happened
and I knew I was a mere pretender.

"You know what I love about frost"
She crunched along holding hands with her father
You just knew this was not her first musing of the day

Mother of the Miracle
Katie Thurston

You may have been labelled a monster for what you did;
I became numb the first year
Kept moving as if I could change what had happened
if I didn't stop long enough
to see it replay again and again in my mind
I got angry and morose; self-pitying and even sometimes giddily pre-occupied
to conceal the pain of loss.

4 years have passed this way
I visit you each month I can;
interrupted only by pandemic.
And now recall what changes you have made:
spiritual, emotional, physical-
you taught others, built your physique on a meager chemical-strewn diet,
you read now~
something you once abhorred,
preferring only to play games, work, exercise, eat, and watch TV..
or go to the firing range.

How could I have known your struggle?
I watched helplessly as you drowned
Now you have risen and swim into my mind:
You are a miracle of survival.
No longer the Mother of the Monster
I am Mother of the Miracle.