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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 11, 2012)
22 in other words december11 2012 THE INKWELL By Lynn Berry Guest Contributor Christopher Sedlmeyer Here we are again, perched between that family rock and hard place of the year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. For most of us, the holidays are not without their tensions. In some cases, for the holiday visits, we are thrown together as a family, everyone at once, in one form or another, for a day, or weekend, or longer. All the old frictions and tensions that we can usually avoid during the year are exposed again, sometimes right where we left them last year. Then we find ourselves navigating through these people that we love all over again. This month’s poem, by Mary Oliver, is called “A Visitor”. The poem speaks to past hurts we often have with family and, more importantly, the opportunities that are left for us in these tense holidays to love and accept these people that challenge us and yet remain the very landscape of our lives. A Visitor My father, for example, Who was young once And blue-eyed Returns On the darkest of nights To the porch and knocks Wildly at the door, And if I answer I must be prepared For his waxy face, For his lower lip Swollen with bitterness And so, for a long time, I did not answer, But slept fitfully Between his hours of rapping. But finally there came a night When I rose out of my sheets And stumbled down the hall. The door fell open And I knew I was saved And could bear him, Pathetic and hollow, With even the least of his dreams Frozen inside him, And the meanness gone. And I greeted him and asked him Into the house, And lit the lamp, And looked into his blank eyes In which at last I saw what a child must love, I saw what love might have done Had we loved in time. ----- Mary Oliver The Vernonia Lions Club wishes you and your family a Happy Holiday Season Paid for by private funds. Happy Holidays from The ---Writer’s Idea: Try writing portraits of your family members, let the language and imagery you use to describe them reveal what you love most about them and what you do not love at all about them. ---Writer’s Tip: Often it is helpful to get words on paper first, without worrying about being “artistic”. You will notice in Mary Oliver’s poem, much of the language is straightforward; it is the way she segments the words into lines and stanzas that help to emphasize a single important word or action. ---WE ARE LOOKING FOR LOCAL POETRY. WE NEED YOUR POEMS!!!! Please send your original submissions to InkwellVernonia@gmail.com or by mail: PO Box 333 Vernonia, OR 97064. Please include your name and contact information. Write--Express--Expand. Chris Sedlmeyer holds an M.A. in English, specializing in archewypal criwicism and medieval spiriwualiwy. He has wriwwen for whe American Benedicwine Review and currenwly wriwes a weekly blog on Carmeliwe spiriwualiwy and discernmenw for whe American Province of whe Order of Carmeliwes of whe Ancienw Observance. Peace on Earth from Cedar Ridge Retreat and Conference Center www.VisitCedarRidge.com (503) 429-2801 Season’s Greetings City of Vernonia City Hall will be closed at Noon on December 24th Tuesday, December 25th at Noon on December 31st Tuesday, January 1st Open Wednesday, January 2nd from Vernonia Service & Repair 58605 Nehalem Hwy. S. 503-429-7972
