Poetry and birthdays

This morning I got up early, after falling asleep at the blessed 10:00 p.m. hour last night.  I was thinking about my blog and how I've lost my mojo for said writing outlet.  Some things come, some things go, some things last until they fade or get replaced --a rather elusive process, really.  But here's a poem and a few words about Mr. King, whose real birthday is today.  I liked waking up to both writings in my inbox this early morning. 

Having Confessed

by Patrick Kavanagh

Having confessed he feels


That he should go down on his knees and pray


For forgiveness for his pride, for having


Dared to view his soul from the outside.


Lie at the heart of the emotion, time


Has its own work to do. We must not anticipate


Or awaken for a moment. God cannot catch us


Unless we stay in the unconscious room


Of our hearts. We must be nothing,


Nothing that God may make us something.


We must not touch the immortal material


We must not daydream to-morrow's judgment—


God must be allowed to surprise us.


We have sinned, sinned like Lucifer


By this anticipation. Let us lie down again


Deep in anonymous humility and God


May find us worthy material for His hand.

"Having Confessed" by Patrick Kavanagh, from Collected Poems. 

It's the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. He was a minister in Montgomery, Alabama, 26 years old, when he was chosen to lead a boycott of segregated buses. He didn't set out to become civil rights activist, and he said later that if he'd known what the job would entail, he might have turned it down. He wasn't even sure he wanted to become a preacher. As a teenager, he thought that the way people shouted and made noise in his Baptist church was embarrassing. 

But during the bus boycott, during which he was assaulted and arrested and his house was bombed, he experienced what he described as a religious conversion. He realized that the civil rights movement was greater than King himself, greater than his own doubts, and that he had to act like a charismatic figurehead, even if he didn't feel like one. He said: "As I became involved, and as people began to derive inspiration from their involvement, I realized that the choice leaves your own hands. The people expect you to give them leadership."