Alberto Rios

SHUT DOWN

/ janpriddyoregon / 3 Comments

Gary and I were awake at three this morning. I am trying not to read the news, not to compulsively check statistics for an entire day. I deleted unread all the news in my mailbox right away this morning without even reading headlines. Instead, I worked on the story, revising what will go live today. Gary has brought me coffee, and then drank it himself. Coffee allows him to go back to sleep. (which we did.)

I think today I will finish the second shawl of this warp. I was still weaving yesterday past seven in the evening so there is not so much left of that dreamy ocean-colored shawl. (The photo shows just the start of that piece.) I usually take a risk with the third length of weaving, choosing unexpected colors for the weft. I am not decided how the last will go, will I use the odd multicolored skeins with violet that I have laid out or something entirely different?

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GIVING

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This morning I compared the message of an essayist to “The Gift.” That poem by Li-Young Lee describes how self-discipline was taught to a young boy by his father, who calmly tells him a story while removing a splinter. Search for that story and you will find it.

“to get the news from poems . . .”

I also received an email with links to

Poems of Joy, Hope, and Community

One of them is by Alberto Rios. I have had a soft spot for Rios since reading his poems about death by avocado and because he was born the same year I was.

When Giving Is All We Have

Alberto Ríos – 1952-

                                              One river gives
                                              Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.

 

Copyright © 2014 by Alberto Ríos. Used without permission of the author.

You can find it here: https://poets.org/poem/when-giving-all-we-have

 

I have not donated to the nonprofit Academy of American Poets this year. Perhaps you will find enough comfort in this website to help them continue their offerings of hope.

It can be helpful to spend a few moments each day with language to maintain our well-being and fortitude. As we find ways to come together while apart, please find a selection of poems our team has curated especially for you, from Poets.org:

“Darling Coffee” by Meena Alexander
“For Keeps” by Joy Harjo
“Song Out Here” by Juan Felipe Herrera
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson
“These Poems” by June Jordan
“Leisure” by Amy Lowell
“The Last Thing” by Ada Limón
“So Much Happiness” by Naomi Shihab Nye
“Cento Between the Ending and the End” by Cameron Awkward-Rich
“When Giving Is All We Have” by Alberto Ríos
“Everyone Sang” by Siegfried Sassoon
“The Flower at My Window” by Lucian B. Watkins
“The Things That Count” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“[I wandered lonely as a Cloud]” by William Wordsworth
“To All My Friends” by May Yang