The space between events is where most of life is lived.
Those half-remembered moments of joy or sadness, fear or disappointment,
are merely beads of life strung together
to make one expanding necklace of experience.
The space between events is where we grow old.
From sunrise to sunset one day lives as another day emerges
from the fluid womb of dawn,
the first bead strung upon the everlasting thread of life.
The space between events is where knowledge marries beauty.
In quiet reflection we remember only the colored outline of events,
the black and white of war,
the rosiness that surrounded our first love.
The space between events is why we go on living.
The laughter of a child
or the sigh of wind in a canyon
becomes the music we hear expanding in our hearts
each time we gather one more bead of life.
From “Dancing Moons” by Nancy Wood
I love it when you share poems, Penny. I don’t read enough poetry.
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I am delighted to hear it, Andra. Poems are songs without music (or is it songs are poetry put to music?) and I will try to share them more. Tomorrow is the BIG DAY. 🙂
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Nancy Wood is a new poet to me. After having read about her today I am wanting to read more. I already have a lump in my throat about “Old Coyote”.
Something in The Beads of Life reminded me of Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality, one of my favorite go-to poems.
Thank you for another gem to add to my collection.
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PS. my daffodils are up and I had to tell you!
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I will need to check “Old Coyote”, Marilyn. She was such a gifted writer and her words always seem to speak to me. Thanks, too, for Wordsworth’s ode. I will be googling it, for sure. I can always count on you, dear one, for carrying the conversation forward. Thank you – and how excited I am to hear that your daffodils are peaking through. Something to hope for in the weeks ahead – especially with the continuing cold here. 🙂
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Just to say that I did, just now, spend some quiet time with Wordsworth “Intimations of Immorality” . Now I, too, have another gem to add to my own collection. Thank you.
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Beautiful Penny, and I hope your ‘space between events’ is filled with loving support.
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Oh, thank you, Juliet. We all need that loving support at times and just your words alone provide it for me.
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I have never read much poetry, and I am usually only moved to do so when something this lovely is brought to my attention. Thanks, Penny.
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You are most welcome, Karen. I think that most of us shy away from poetry, for any number of reasons, but, when I take the time to draw from the well of such words, I am almost always filled with them. I really enjoy Nancy Wood’s poetry and she just called to me last night as I was looking as the photo I took, such as it is, of the deer at night.
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This is really, really good. Thank you. I just love it. And I’m such a believer in the so-called ‘small’ moments of life. It’s like how I wish I’d taken pictures of my kids in restaurants, and in the shopping carts. Things like that I never thought of photographing. People do more now which I think is great. Home For The Holidays has a little subplot of the moments that mean so much which were never captured on film. Thanks again for this.
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Nan, I think you might like Nancy Wood’s books of poetry and her other books. Those “small” moments are where I seem to reside. This poem called out to me yesterday. You are so right; people do capture more now with my camera . I know I do, not only with my garden, an orange, whatever little ray of light comes through, but, with the grandkids as well. You are so very welcome.
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I’m not much of a poetry reader either, but I really enjoyed this poem.
I’ve read it three times already, to digest every word. Thanks for sharing!
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I am so delighted to know that you enjoyed it, Roz. I try to read poems aloud to really collect their meanings, and they do take a bit to really “digest every word”. As I’ve mentioned to a few others, this really spoke to me the other day; perhaps because I’m smack dab in the “space between”. You are very welcome, my friend.
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Thanks for this timely poem. It really describes this time after the holidays when we’re back to everyday living. 🙂 Your photo fits it too!
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You are most welcome, Janet, and right you are. It does describe this time we call January. Can you see the deer?
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What an incredibly special poem, Penny. I’m very moved by it and both poem and poet are unfamiliar to me. I’m going to hold onto this one as it really speaks to me. Thank you. And that photo is ethereal, too. Wow!
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I thought it might appeal to you, Debra. I have a few of Nancy Wood’s books of poetry and turn to them every-so-often. This was one that opened up to me at just the right moment the other day. Did you find the deer in the photo?
Thanks, Debra. Have a good weekend.
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I’ve never even heard of Nancy Wood, Penny, but this lovely poem, full of insight, makes me want to search out more.
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You can find many of her poems online, Perpetua. I think your might enjoy them. 🙂
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