In Laudem

"In Laudem" is Latin for "In Praise of," and I want to use it as a jumping-off point for an exploration of things and experiences for which I am thankful. I had a mini-epiphany yesterday and realized that ignoring the richness of each day was an invitation to discontent. It's a hazard of busy-ness and perhaps a crime against the community - family, friends, neighbors - I share my life with.

Edward Hirsch, in his book Poet's Choice - a collection of poems and commentaries that originally appeared as columns in Washington Post Book World - says that "praise restores us to the world again, to our luckiness of being. It is one of the permanent impulses of poetry." In the same chapter (a discussion of Gerard Manley Hopkins "God's Grandeur" which I wrote about when I began this blog) he quotes Auden, who says, "there is only one thing that all poetry must do; it must praise all it can for being and for happening."

So in that spirit - In Laudem...