During these trying days of social distancing, self-isolating and quarantines, days rife with fear and anxiety, my colleagues and I thought you might like some company. So each day we will be introducing you to poets we have met over the years. The only contagion they will expose you to is a measure of joy, reflection and meditation brought on by “the best words in the best order.”
Enjoy.
— Bill Moyers
Today we have a new poem from Jim Haba, founder of the Dodge Poetry Festival and editor of The Language of Life, companion book to Bill Moyers’ television series of the same name.
In a Time of Confusion
In a time of confusion and reckoning
pause. Turn again to the endless
circle from which we sprang.
Respect its boundary. Worship
its center. Drink in the weight
of its soothing simplicity. Ride
its lightning rotation
into stillness. Drop
down ever more deeply.
Trust what is found there.
Jim Haba grew up in rural Washington, both east and west of the Cascade Mountains. To the east on farms and orchards in the Yakima Valley. To the west in state parks his stepfather pioneered on Bainbridge and Camano Islands. Haba designed, produced, and hosted twelve biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festivals (1986-2008), the largest poetry events in North America. He divides his time now between Central New Jersey, surrounded again by fields and park land, and the outer reaches of Cape Cod. (Bio from JimHaba.com)
See all poets in the A Poet a Day Collection.
