Daily Nourishment for August 2, 2024: Sitting with the Poetry of Helen Hoyt with Guidance from Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 30 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“Remember well” - Helen Hoyt
Pause.
August 2 is the anniversary of the death of poet Helen Hoyt.
In one of her most well-known poems, “Ellis Park,” Hoyt addresses the park directly, saying that each morning, she passes through the park, and each morning, she carries with her, into her day, “a piece of you,” some of the park’s “breeze,” and some of its “shade,” “Some of your calm as I go by.” All this she carries into her “office walls,” and it sustains her through the day.
What is your park? It may not be an actual park, of course. From where do you draw breeze and calm that you carry into the rest of your day? Breathe deeply as you return to that place in your mind’s eye, and take what you need.
“So much treasure you have left.
As I find you, fresh at morning,
So I find you, home returning --
Nothing lacking from your grace.
All your riches wait in place
For me to borrow
On the morrow,” writes Hunt.
Prompt.
She is little remembered today. I wish this were otherwise.
Here is one of her lovely and simple poems:
Memory
I can remember our sorrow, I can remember our laughter;
I know that surely we kissed and cried and ate together;
I remember our places and games, and plans we had-
The little house and how all came to naught-
Remember well:
But I cannot remember our love,
I cannnot remember our love
Practice.
Write a paragraph or poem that begins “I remember” but whose last sentence or line begins “But I cannot remember”
Want More?
Another poem by Helen Hoyt
Other writerly anniversaries of note-
Today is the hundredth anniversary of the birth of James Baldwin
“You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world”
~
and the sixty-ninth anniversary of the death of poet Wallace Stevens
“Perhaps / The truth depends on a walk around a lake”
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The August Co-Writing Schedule is live.
—Spiritual Direction for Writers® + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering will take place on Saturday, September 28th. Recordings will be available if you can’t join us live. Pre-Sale registration live through Monday.
August 31— Online Revision Stations Designed by Lauren F. Winner
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Lauren Winner.
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