Easter Sunday, 2010 by Jeremy Paden

Outside our bedroom window the weeping cherry
and Bradford pear glow with auroral light;
morning has not yet broken, but soon the sun,
not just its curving light, will clear the horizon.
A myriad birds, whose songs I cannot recognize,
utterly indifferent to our desire to sleep past
sun’s rising and well into this spring morning, sing.
Even our early-to-rise children, knowing it Sunday,
sleep late, but this first-light lambency, these birdsongs,
they wake us from a slumber different than sleep
to a world alive, in bloom, in song, now green.

Jeremy Dae Paden was born in Italy and raised in Latin America. He teaches Spanish at Transylvania University .  Among his many achievements, he is published in Calíope, a critical journal of poetry of Spain and the Americas during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.  He is also a member of the Affrilachian Poets.  

It is an honor and a privilege for Esse Diem to post Professor Paden’s work.  April is National Poetry Month; click here to find out more about celebrating poetry and its vital place in American culture.

Image credit: E. Gaucher

Forgetting Futility

Be as a child.

I so enjoyed just now reading this wonderful reflection by David Halperin on the philosophy of PeanutsA Lesson From Sally Brown | My Blog, that I had to share it here right away.

Halperin writes:

To brood about the “futility” of this or that action, the very concept of “futility,” is alien to a child.  The child simply does, and the delight of the doing is sufficient. 

I am privileged to have the opportunity to attend an all-day workshop led by Halperin at the end of the month in Greensboro for the NC Writers’ Network conference.  Halperin already has brought some influential ideas into my head via his blog.

As I work with the writers for the 2011 Essays on Childhood project, I notice natural ebbs and flows in their confidence in whether or not putting some of their experiences down on paper is 1) a good idea, and 2) something they think they can do well.  This post from Halperin reminds us that it is the doing that is our joy, and our satisfaction, and yes even our achievement.

Whether you are a writer or not, I hope today you will find yourself in the midst of something you love to do, and not over-analyze it.  Simply bask in the pure pleasure of doing something you enjoy, and don’t worry so much about what it’s for or what “the result” was.

Be as a child.  Enter the kingdom of heaven by just doing.  That is enough.

Image credit: E. Gaucher