Another Kind of Love

Do you have people in your life that are difficult to love? Most of us do. Here's a poem written by a well known and prolific author that addresses this common problem. You might not agree with her resolution, but I just love how she expresses it in words.


Another Kind of Love

by Catherine Cookson

Blood is thicker than water,
It's true. But it indicates you should love
Where you hate.
Don't strain to love your kin,
Put distance between,
And stay away
To prevent ulcers.
And don't question when
The stranger in the street
Tugs at your heart,
For here is your kin,
The kindred spirit puts out its hand,
And shakes,
And awakes love.
So do you meet your mate.
No blood tie here but someone closer
................than your skin.
So don't worry
When you cannot
Love
Your brother,
Or your mother.
Don't wilt, as if under a sin,
You didn't ask for them to be your kin.
So throw away your guilt;
Love is no sin.


Catharine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, named Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. She later met and married Tom Cookson, a local grammar-school teacher. In 1968 she won the Winnifred Holtby Award for the best regional novel of the year. Her readership quickly spread throughout the world after that and her many bestselling novels made her one of the most popular contemporary women novelists. She wrote 104 books in her lifetime. Amazing! She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday in 1998.

In Catharine's words: "There are among the bitches those who smile too! These are the ones who do it while cutting your throat"

Hello, Kitty dear!

Hello, Kitty dear!
How are you?

Is it true that you are writing?
How clever
To come all this way
From your background of drink
And fighting,
And, really, no education!
My dear, how you must have worked.
And, of course, to you all the glory.
But tell me,
Did you get
Some educated person
To edit for you
Your story?

This, in so many words, was actually said to Catharine Cookson.


 

How is the River a Piece of Sky

What a lovely poem. I read this poem several times and still found something new to think about.

One thought I had was how we believe some things to be true that are not true. Yet it gives us great joy. It could be a very innocent thing like 'Santa Claus'. As you get older you learn that 'Santa Claus' is an imaginary person, but you still like the memory of 'Santa' because Santa is a good memory.

When people become parents they keep the allusion of 'Santa' alive so their children can enjoy it, too. It's pleasant to reflect on the innocence of yesterday especially when there is so much sadness in the news.

Today, take time to drop a penny in the river and watch the sky ripple.

The River Is a Piece of Sky

-John Ciardi (June 1916 - March 1986)

From the top of a bridge
The river below
Is a piece of sky -
    Until you throw
    A penny in
    Or a cockleshell
    Or a pebble or two
    Or a bicycle bell
    Or a cobblestone
    Or a fat man's cane-
And then you can see
It's a river again.
The difference you'll see
When you drop your penny:
The river has splashes,
The sky hasn't any.

John Ciardi was the son of Italian immigrants and taught at several university's in America. He left teaching in 1961 to pursue full time writing as a poet and spent some time with the, "Saturday Review" as a staff writer and critic. His love of words and language made him an admired poet in North America during the 1950's and onward. He wrote volumes of children's poetry along with a popular book entitled, "How does a poem mean." I've got to get that book.