Fertile Ground: Daily Poetry Read

BAPTISM
Alice Walker

They dunked me in the creek;
a tiny brooklet.
Muddy, gooey with rotting leaves,
a greenish mold floating;
definable.
For love it was. For love of God
at seven. All in white.
With God's' mud ruining my snowy
socks and his bullfrog spoors
gluing up my face.


From Her Blue Body Everything We Know Earthling Poems 1965-1990 Complete.

Art & Spirit

The other day, a friend sent me an image of Pilobolus. I was awestruck. I stared and felt glad. I know, not too articulate but that's the best I can do even days later. I stared and felt this coursing rush of joy. Honestly, there was this inner shifting simply from taking in the beauty and power of the image. Have you had experiences like this? Does art affect you in indelible ways?

"Pilobolus, the arts organism, germinated in the fertile soil of a Dartmouth College dance class in 1971. What emerged was a collaborative choreographic process and a unique weight-sharing approach to partnering that gave the young company a non-traditional but powerful new set of skills with which to make dances. The group was immediately acclaimed for its startling mix of humor and invention and Pilobolus soon became a self-sufficient organization, its members choreographing, dancing, managing, and publicizing their own programs."

Pilobolus will perform at the Macomb Center in Clinton Township, Michigan, October 6th. If you can, do see this exceptional company. Check our links for their website.

Fertile Ground: Daily Poetry Read

Ark
Camille T. Dungy

I will enter you as hope enters me,
through blinding liquid, light of rain, and I
will stay inside until you send me out;
I will stay inside until you ground me.
we cannot outrun the rain. So many
summers I have tried. So many summers.
But when the rumble calls after the spark
there can be no escape. No outstripping
the drench soak, the wet sheath, the water caul.
This is more than you want to hear. Much more
than I want to tell you. Tabernacle
transporting my life from the desert, you,
the faith I am born and reborn into,
you rescuer, deliverer of rain.


from What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison.

Birthday Shout Outs!

September 29

Gwen Ifill was born on this date in 1955. She is an African-American journalist.

From New York City (Queens), she is the daughter of O. Urcille Ifill, Sr. a Methodist preacher and Eleanor IFill. She has a sister and brother, Maria Ifill Philip and Roberto. In 1977, she graduated from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts where she majored in communications, and through an internship got her first hands-on experience as a journalist. Ifill has also received 15 honorary degrees.

She earlier worked for the Boston Herald, the Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NBC. Ifill became moderator of the PBS program Washington Week in Review in October 1999 and is also senior correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. On October 5, 2004, she moderated the vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. Ifill serves on the board of the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Museum of Television and Radio and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.