Today I am reading you a poem by Howard Nemerov titled The Blue Swallows.

Howard Nemerov authored 26 books.
The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1978.
In 1988 Mr. Nemerov was named the Poet Laureate of the United States.

He was a Professor of English at Washington University in St.Louis. I had the great honor of reading, and studying his poetry and walking to school with him on occasion.

His poetry is a vehicle for thought, reflection, and contemplation.
In his words, in his poem: 'To Lu Chi, author of the Wen Fu, or Prose Poem on the Art of Letters A.D.302', he carries on a conversation, in an orchard, with the Chinese poet about the constant changes in the world and the dangers of too rational a mankind, of indifference to beauty, of the wars on cities, states, words, and even war against poetry, and he concludes: “So much I gather from your poem: continue.”

Reading his writing this morning is like a return to a saced grove, made so by the mind's ability to place the magic in the moments.
Today I will walk out, and stand like a brush stroke in the backdrop of my landscape, and I will take his advice.
I will continue.