To be willing to praise what cannot be commanded
Praise What Comes
Jeanne Lohmann, 1923-2016, American. From The Light of Invisible Bodies: Poems (Daniel and Daniel Publishing, 2003)
Sound of Silence, 1978, lithograph. Charles White, 1918-1979. Art Institute of Chicago on loan to a MOMA, NY retrospective in 2018
Charles White, African American, artist, Social Realist, teacher of artists among whom Kerry James Marshall and David Hammons
Surprising as unplanned kisses, all you haven’t deserved
of days and solitude, your body’s immoderate good health
that lets you work in many kinds of weather. Praise
talk with just about anyone. And quiet intervals, books
detail of Sound of Silence, 1978, lithograph. Charles White, 1918-1979.
that are your food and your hunger; nightfall and walks
before sleep. Praising these for practice, perhaps
you will come at last to praise grief and the wrongs
you never intended. At the end there may be no answers
Love Letter III, 1977, lithograph. Charles White, 1918-1979. Art Institute of Chicago loaned to a MOMA, NY retrospective in 2018
and only a few very simple questions: did I love,
finish my task in the world? Learn at least one
of the many names of God? At the intersections,
the boundaries where one life began and another
detail of Sound of Silence, 1978, lithograph. Charles White, 1918-1979.
ended, the jumping-off places between fear and
possibility, at the ragged edges of pain,
did I catch the smallest glimpse of the holy?
detail of Sound of Silence, 1978, lithograph. Charles White, 1918-1979.
The poem is so life affirming. And life-giving. Thank you and greetings for THANKSGIVING.