Always a poem

To me, faith is not just a noun, but also a verb.
~Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter, 2013, Commonwealth Club

Thinking about Jimmy Carter this Poetry Friday. He was such a genuinely moral man, a true inspiration.

Two of his quotes to live by: "We have an ethical obligation, I think, to prevent suffering wherever we can."

"In our democracy, the only title higher and more powerful than that of president is the title of citizen. It is every citizen’s right and duty to help shape the future legacy of our nation."

ALWAYS A POEM, JIMMY
by Indran Amirthanayagam

The melanoma spread from
skin to liver to brain and
President Jimmy Carter
started to fall often, walking

in the peanut field, at church
on Sunday, at home. He wrote
Always A Reckoning. I wrote
The Elephants of Reckoning.

We exchanged our reckonings
in 1997 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
I was assigned to the American
Embassy and sat down with Jimmy,

Rosalynn and Chip to talk
politics, health and environment.
The President visited to gather
facts in his fight against

read the rest here

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Another quote to think about, from Jimmy Carter at his inauguration:

"In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: 'We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'"

(A nod of appreciation for giving a shout-out to his teacher :))

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Another Year of Reading has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Mary Lee!

The call is out for BRAVE poems (until Jan 12).

Mandora

Few occupations pass the solitary hours more fruitfully than the playing of a musical instrument.
~Stephen Hough

For Art Thursday, a beautifully-carved musical instrument circa 1420 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:

This is the most elegant example of three extant small European stringed instruments dated to the early fifteenth century... whether it was played with a bow or plucked with a plectrum or fingers, remains unclear.

Cupid, armed with bow and arrow, hovers over the couple, a young man represented as falconer (the falcon denotes loyalty and trust) and a maiden with unbound hair who clasps his arm. A dog, likewise suggesting loyalty, sits at their feet. The rich iconography of the instrument unites art and music in the service of romance.

What might a mandora have sounded like?