Thank you, Carol, for hosting Poetry Friday on your blog this Thanksgiving week at the beginning of the 2020 Holiday season. Check out what she is sharing this week at Carol’s Corner!
I have a lot to feel thankful for. My family is well, there is a vaccine and a new government is being assembled. It’s like hearing hoofbeats of the calvary just as a battle is about to be lost.
When I took this photo of the pie I made today, I thought about endings beyond simply my dinner.
ENDINGS
The end of a dinner
The end of the month
The end of a season
The end of the year
The end of a Presidency.
The end of veering away
from the North Star
The end of believing it's the right course.
© Janice Scully 2020
Today I spoke to a good friend who is a family practice doctor in the panhandle of Florida. He has many geriatric patients and is concerned about their safety as well as his own. A number of his patients have refused to wear a mask when they come to his office. I could tell it was exhausting for him to deal with just as Florida is on fire with Covid.
So, what will this ending mean? How persuasive will an empathetic and steady hand be? Is there a fast forward button to 1/20/21?
Thank you, Carol, for hosting! My best to all and a Happy Thanksgiving
So grateful for the end of this year! And the end of this presidency! Phew!
Happy Thanksgiving. I found myself nodding to your poem. Yes, let’s be at the end of veering away from right, science, facts, civility.
Janice, we are so fortunate to be saved by the calvary and moving on to a new year where there is hope in sight. Thanks for your delicious looking pie and Endings poem.
How clever to move from a photo of your pie to your poem on endings. Let’s hope the beginnings that follow live up to our heartfelt hopes.
Let’s keep focusing on our gratitudes!
I’m from Florida, and my family all still lives there. My dad (an engineer who worked for NASA for his whole career) thinks the mask rules are ridiculous. I am constantly flummoxed. And glad I don’t live in Florida. I love the simplicity of your language here, and the wonderful repetition in lines building in scope and importance.
There’s a powerful line in a Jimmy Buffett song La Vie Dansante- ‘Face it all with a willing heart, every stop is a place to stop.’ Janice, your post reminded me of these words. I have recited them across many years to remind myself to retain an equilibrium between beginnings and endings. When this year draws its final curtain down, we shall start again with hope…
I’m not usually a fan of endings, preferring the hopeful excitement of beginnings almost every time…but this year, yes, the ending is the main course! May we hold fast as long as we need to, and I’m sending support to your friend and all her health care colleagues1
Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful. These two lines:
The end of veering away
from the North Star
Here’s to 2021
I love your simple and powerful poem. It says so much in such a few words. I often don’t like good-byes/endings, but there’s a lot of them I’m happy about as this year comes to an end–which you summarized very well.
Very strong post and poem Janice, and your pie looks delish! Seeing beyond ourself is very difficult for many, but it’s how we can help each other, thanks for your caring, deep thoughts here.