Woke up to 22 degrees and light, silent snow.  Living beauty in the mountains.

“Wild air, world-mothering air, Nestling me everywhere …”

Found my old crumbling copy of Gerard Manley Hopkins poems the other day.  I read his work more in my “faith days” but I still find small treasures in some lines.

No worst, there is none

-“O the mind, mind has mountains …”

-“All Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.”

Even secular readers can empathize with his pathos:

My own heart let me more have pity on

For the sheer joy of reading a well-crafted poem aloud:

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

For someone struggling with depression, especially related to beliefs:

Carrion Comfort

And one of his I read in a Poetry class in high school:

The Windhover

We can wonder how many more mountains of the mind we could climb with Hopkins if his faith hadn’t driven him to burn so many of his poems!