Beannacht, John O’Donohue, 1956-2008, Irish poet
The old year has worn itself out and given itself up into our memory
In the Hand, 1957, oil on tempered masonite. John Wilde, 1919-2006, American. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Death of a Favorite Bird
W. S. Merwin, American poet, born 1927
What was the matter with life on my shoulder
Age that I was wing delight
That you had to thresh out your breath in the spiked rafters
To the beat of rain
I have asked this question before it knows me it comes
Back to find me through the cold dreamless summer
And the barn full of black feathers
The rooster has crowed. The little boy can no longer hold him back.
And the new year is off……….
Boy with Rooser, bronze, 1868. Adriano Ceccioni, 1836-1886, Italian. Philadelphia Art Museum
The Source of Life
The Source of Life, oil on canvas, 1890. Léon Frédéric, 1856-1940, Belgian. Philadelphia Art Museum
The Philadelphia Museum of Art notes that the Symbolist painter is representing hope and a new world: children emerging from a life-giving stream flowing through a fertile world.
And it is Hallelujah because it is always Hallelujah despite, because, notwithstanding and as against……
Hallelujah, 1984. Leonard Cohen, 1934-2016, Canadian