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