Sunday Mini Challenge - Goodness Gracious!

A few weeks ago, President Obama delivered a eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, one of nine African-Americans shot down at a bible study meeting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Don’t worry.  This is not a political prompt.

President Obama’s speech focused, remarkably, on the concept of grace.  This is perhaps not remarkable for a eulogy, but it is pretty extraordinary in a speech by a sitting U.S. president.  He talked specifically about the religious idea of grace, what he called “the free and benevolent favor of God.”  He even, to the astonishment and joy of the mourners, sang (acapella until the organ joined in) the hymn “Amazing Grace.” 

Don’t worry--this is also not a religious prompt.  But the idea of grace has been on my mind since President Obama's speech and I ask you today to use "grace" as a springboard for a poem. 

As always, I mean for this prompt to be as open as possible. Do not feel bound to write about a spiritual or religious idea of grace.  (Of course, you can.)   But also feel free to think of the concept of grace in non-religious terms--as, for example, a sudden opening or spaciousness.  You could also write about the physical idea of grace--a graceful person or gesture. 

You could write about saving graces, coups to grace, Grace Kelly, the Toads’ own wonderful Grace, who posts at Everyday Amazing.  Of course, you can write about the  gracelessness!   

Finally, do not feel compelled to use the word “grace."  

When I was thinking of a poem to illustrate this concept, I kept returning to a sonnet that I remembered reading in my college years.  When I finally found the poem, it seemed, superficially, to have little to do with conventional ideas of grace, and yet it still felt right to me.  Here it is, written by Rainer Maria Rilke,  translated by Stephen Mitchell:

Going Blind

She sat just like the others at the table.
But on second glance, she seemed to hold her cup
a little differently as she picked it up.
She smiled once.  It was almost painful.

And when they finished and it was time to stand
and slowly, as chance selected them, they left
and moved through many rooms (they talked and laughed),
I saw her.  She was moving far behind

the others, absorbed, like someone who will soon
have to sing before a large assembly;
upon her eyes, which were radiant with joy,
light played as on the surface of a pool.

She followed slowly, taking a long time,
as though there were some obstacle in the way;
And yet: as though, once it was overcome,
she would be beyond all walking, and would fly.

So, grace!  

Re Rilke and Stephen Mitchell--no copyright infringement intended.  I urge you to buy one of Rilke’s books with Mitchell’s absolutely terrific translations. And re Obama, if you have any interest in American culture, I urge you to watch the speech.

Mostly, I urge you to feel free to be your full self writing a poem today or in the coming days. 

Finally, finally, I did not realize till this morning that it was Toads 4th Anniversary and also Mandela Day--I send both congratulations and heartfelt thanks to Kerry O'Connor for all her work and her example. 

And now, for optional musical accompaniment (and for Shay), here's Emmylou Harris.  (Note that all the pics are mine--the top one the detail of a light sculpture by my husband, Jason Martin.  Do feel free to use one with proper attribution to me Karin Gustafson, a/k/a Manicddaily and (agh) Outlawyer and to Jason Martin, if you use the light sculpture.)

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