As the editor of The Dewdrop, this has been a challenging year for me as I have tried to balance working on the site with my own professional and spiritual formation training as a hospital Chaplain. I’m grateful to readers and contributors for their patience with my reduced capabilities and am especially grateful to my two fellow editors Nicholas Trandahl and Ellis Elliott who have continued to give their time and energy to this project throughout the year.
It makes me so happy to see The Dewdrop’s community continue to grow, as I receive a stream of feedback from readers who tell me what a useful and meaningful resource this platform is in their lives. As I peruse this list of the most read posts of this year, I am reminded of the themes that stand out, that have most resonated with me and with our community of readers: the process of clearing and letting go, according to E.E. Cummings and May Sarton; the nourishing power of darkness as explored by Deborah Eden Tull and Wendell Berry; John O’Donohue, Jack Gilbert and Derek Walcott on relationships and love; awe and wonder at the power of nature in the work of W.S. Merwin, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Wordsworth and Leslie Ryan; the mystery of the spiritual journey according to Billy Collins, Spence Pfleiderer, Rooja Mohassessy and Christian Lillo; and Joann Stevelos, Tallu Schuyler and Samantha Imperi on living with pain, anger and loss.
I wish you wonderful things for the year ahead, and that your journey may continue to expand your horizons.
Deep bows,
E.E. Cummings – Let It Go—The
E.E. Cummings reflects on the necessity of clearing, of letting go of the things we cling to, in order to make way for love.
The Most Real and Creative Form of Human Presence: John O’Donohue on Soul Friendship
Ancient Celtic tradition upheld soul-friendships and the potential for inner growth that they teased out.
Wendell Berry – To Know The Dark
Berry’s poem is a reminder that to truly know darkness and its divine power, we need the courage to step into and leave the light behind.
The First Door of Liberation: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Vision of Emptiness and Interbeing
Rather than signifying a lack or a void, Thich Nhat Hanh took emptiness to be a state of inextricable and fundamental interconnectedness.
Like Silt in a Flowing Stream – May Sarton on Solitude and Clutter
May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude is the upshot of a journey into herself, into simplification and self-examination.
In the Name of the Stranger – Pádraig Ó Tuama on the Language of The Troubles
Poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama reflects on the use of the word ‘trouble’ in Irish language, and its relationship to grief and mourning.
W.S. Merwin – Rain Light
Lifelong environmentalist W.S. Merwin said about his poem, Rain Light, ‘this is not a rational poem at all.’
Samantha Imperi – To my child, on God
Samantha Imperi’s powerful tragic poem “To my child, on God” muses God as a feminine force, forced to birth a universe she doesn’t want.
Normal Days – A Tribute to the Ordinary From the Far Edge of Life
After a glioblastoma diagnosis, Tallu Schuyler Quinn wrote about what dying meant to her body, mind and heart in this series of moving essays.
Ursula K. Le Guin – Kinship
The mystical teachings of trees are beautifully expressed in Ursula K. Le Guin’s poem, Kinship, in which she explores our own primal origins.
Jack Gilbert – Going There
The mythology of failure, especially in love, is a frequent motif in Jack Gilbert’s poetry.
Billy Collins – Shoveling Snow With Buddha
Collins’ outlandish and endearing image of the Buddha’s wholehearted snow shoveling, with thoughts of hot chocolate and an imminent game of cards.
William Wordsworth – The Rainbow
This short poem – Wordsworth’s ode to a rainbow – is a simple and direct expression of awe and manifestation of ‘beginner’s mind.’
Passersby
BY JOANN STEVELOS – What happens when an abandoned child grows up and one day buries her estranged father
Leslie Ryan – Taking Refuge
An appropriate poem for these cold dark winter days, Leslie Ryan has written lines frozen with ferocious and gorgeous imagery and sparseness–like a rime-coated mountain.
Spence Pfleiderer – A Simple Morning Prayer
The aptly-named A Simple Morning Prayer pleads for understanding and love, for connection and illumination in a handful of terse lines. This piece is evidence that a poem need not be complex or long-winded to be a thing of authentic beauty and power.
Derek Walcott – Love After Love
A gentle and joyful invitation to intimacy and love towards ourselves by Saint Lucian poet Derek Walcott.
The Sacred Pulse of Night and Day
Deborah Eden Tull explores the experience of darkness and how it can be a transformative and expansive human experience.
Rooja Mohassessy – Intoxicated by Verses
Iranian-born poet Rooja Mohassessy presents readers a work of luscious language, devotion, wonder, faith, and also disillusionment.
Why I Write: Christian Dillo
Christian Dillo on a contemporary Zen approach to awakening and what meaningful transformation actually looks like.