Holy Rover
As the slow turn of the year’s wheel takes us into Advent, that time of reflection and introspection, the Holy Rover is going to be shifting gears. For more than a year I’ve been posting items six-days-a-week, but the time has come for a break. The Holy Rover isn’t retiring completely, but for the foreseeable future I will be posting items only occasionally as the spirit moves me. I still hope to tell you about books that interest me, show you pictures of what makes my heart sing, and reflect on inner and outer journeys (and in January I’m traveling to Istanbul and Ephesus in Turkey, two cities that I will love telling you about).
If you want to know when something is posted, I invite you to sign up for email notifications at right. Or simply check back in occasionally to see what’s new.
So let me leave you with this poem, which is by Margaret Hasse. Thank you to Margaret for her permission to use it, as it is a perfectly lovely evocation of the mood of the season. During this season of deepening cold, may you find some time to turn your life outside in.
That Time Again
The hands of frost
rust yellow mums,
pick red pulp
from the pockets
of late tomatoes.
Geese pulled away
by important business
honk as they pass
overhead, pointing
their chevrons south.
It’s time now to remove
window screens,
those permissive sieves
of summer breeze,
time to repeat
wool socks and fleece,
to turn life outside in,
repair its seams,
to live a hermit’s life
with heaps of books,
nights of music,
breathing space
for dreams,
with warm bread
and a patient pot
of soup
that steams the glass,
that snugs the rooms,
that time of year again.
Margaret Hasse’s three books of poetry are Milk and Tides, In a Sheep’s Eye, Darling, and Stars Above, Stars Below. Her fourth manuscript, Constellation of the Heart, will be published by Nodin Press in 2011. Winner of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, Margaret lives and works in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her website is www.MargaretHasse.com.
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