Great Encouragement

Yesterday was Poetry Wednesday for me, and I shared my poem for the day on this blog. My poetry partner, Clara, also emailed her poem to me, a lovely poem filled with powerful dream images.

Sometimes we send each other the tiniest morsel of criticism on our poems, pointing out a line that was confusing, or redundant. Usually we just send each other praise. Praise is so cheering! I think of the wonderful line from the poet John Masefield, which I quote often: “Great art does not proceed from great criticism but from great encouragement.”

Here’s what Clara wrote me about my little poem yesterday: “What I love about Alarm Clock is the progressive move from one sleeper to the next, a sort of moving backward toward eternity instead of the opposite way around. And I love the last question, which continues the ripple back to the unknown source of all awakening. The great old one as Einstein dubbed it.”

Her comments made me feel so wise! So deep! I think Clara’s comments were much better than the poem itself, but then again, she wouldn’t have written them if I hadn’t written the poem first.

Today I’m going to walk around all day whispering to myself, “The unknown source of all awakening.” Isn’t that one of the most beautiful lines you’ve ever heard? “The unknown source of all awakening. . . .”