Quotation: Basil Cardinal Hume

We have been told that we must love God. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Mt 22:37-39). The spiritual lives of too many people are based on fear. Now I would not wish to minimise the importance of a wholesome filial fear of God. Fear of hell is, on occasions, no bad motive for avoiding sin. Furthermore, our task is to be pleasing to God and this means that we must keep the commandments, and do what He expects of us. Morality is important, and not only as an end in itself. It should be the test of our intent to love God and serve Him. We should be fearful lest in breaking His law we displease Him. There can be no serious spiritual life which ignores obedience to God. That is evident.

It would, however, be an impoverished spiritual life which was not based on trying to love God. After all, that is the first commandment. Fear is an exhausting emotion. Love must cast out fear, eventually. But I believe that it takes most of us quite a long time to learn about the love of God. It dawns slowly.

Cardinal Basil Hume, Ash Wednesday meditation in Daily Readings in Catholic Classics, ed. Fr. Rawley Myers (Ignatius, 1992), p. 323

Quotation : Kenneth Koch

I said to so many people once, "I write poetry."
They said, "Oh, so you are a poet." Or they said,
"What kind of poetry do you write? modern poetry?"
Or "My brother-in-law is a poet also."
Now if I say, "I am the poet Kenneth Koch," they say "I think I've
    heard of you"
Or "I'm sorry but that doesn't ring a bell" or
"Would you please move out of the way? You're blocking my view
Of that enormous piece of meat that they are lowering into the Bay
Of Pigs." What? Or "What kind of poetry do you write?"

Kenneth Koch, from "Days and Nights," in The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch (Knopf, 2007), p. 403

Haiku

      Autumn afternoon --
in the cool, dark chapel a
      single candle glows.

            *

      Look! The branches of
these sturdy, ancient trees are
      blossoming -- with snow!

            *

      Yesteryear's verses --
racing horses, strong and fierce!
      Now our words stumble.

            *

      Winter moonlight, cold
and pure as hundred-proof gin,
      goes down like water.

            *

      Poet sleeps and dreams
of the perfect line. Wakes up
      and forgets the words.

            *

      Cold Sunday morning --
sun shines on the golden cross
      of the small Greek church.

The Dance

It's cabernet o'clock in Arlington.
Outside, a winter day draws to an end.
An icy glare of white and blinding sun

Brightens the west and sinks below the bend
Of the tree-lined horizon. Warmth and cheer
Inside these walls, with Solitude (dear friend!)

And cordial flames of an imagined fire.
Flashes and flickers blaze inside the hearth
Made of the mind's untamable desire

For beauty, peace -- for what? heaven on earth?
Outside, it darkens. Wine gives breath and bloom
To drowsy Muses, coaxes them to mirth

And banishes solemnity and gloom:
See, how they dance inside this little room!

Draft of a sonnet

It's nineteen eighty-five. You're at the beach.

December. Age sixteen. Reading Hart Crane.

The peak of Mt Parnassus within reach!

Sounds of the cold gray ocean flood your brain.

A day for poetry and truancy.

The fierce Atlantic wind batters Revere.

Miss Plath wrote of "the sluttish, rutted sea"

Remembering Winthrop. (Not too far from here.)

Jump on the train and head for Harvard Square.

Browse the bookstores for anthologies

From thirty years ago.

The Welshman's dithyrambic rhapsodies.

Those lines that make you drunk with vertigo!

Your "muse of fire." Approach her, if you dare!

Scrambled eggs

President Ford liked scrambled eggs. He also liked English muffins. He even made his own English muffins while he was President and living at the White House. Another Republican, William F. Buckley, Jr., was fond of peanut butter. On occasion, he would have peanut butter on an English muffin. The first President Bush was rumored to enjoy pork rinds -- although many observers find it difficult to credit that the patrician statesman, born in New England, could have had a hankering for a snack so seemingly Southwestern and proletarian. We do know that President Bush did not like broccoli. His successor, President Clinton, claimed not to be turned off by the vegetable. However, it strains belief that a man of such hearty appetites could be satisfied with such a non-epicurean but salutary foodstuff. Senator-elect Scott Brown has a hamburger named for him at a venerable Harvard Square burger joint. The burger contains generous quantities of bacon. Does President Obama like bacon?