“A constant sacrament of praise….”

            –Wallace Stevens

Give praise whenever you can!
Praise: Sunrise on snow-capped mountains;

Sunsets on marigold fields;
Every act of kindness and solicitude;

Children smiling in beneficence.
Praise: The hard-earned wisdom of the old;

Every great artist who ever lived;
The almost-great who failed to fulfill their dreams

The color green; amber; bees making honey;
The scent of cedar; calico kittens;

Snow-leopards, eagles, redwoods, ocean-spray;
Prairies, wind-songs, flotillas of clouds.

Praise: lost words etched in living hearts;
Fidelity to the best causes;

Horses; the fleet-footed; the patience of turtles;
The little planet, orbiting its sun;

The little sun, spinning in its galaxy;
The solar system of the atom.

Praise: Cathedrals of memories;
The wine of young love, the incense of old love;

Miracles, harmony, wildness, peace;
The durable and perdurable;

Fruition, and pride in one’s work;
Wisdom in its multitude of forms.

Birds; flight; hazel eyes, blue eyes, all eyes;
Speech, truth, dialogue; music; discernment;

Mercy; charity; health; beauty-always-changing;
The learning-teaching dynamic;

Wherewithal; self-reliance; community;
“A local habitation and a name.”

The ethereal, the mystical, the mundane;
Enough-ness; the courage to know enough-ness;

Those who help and those who acknowledge;
Those who are weary who were trailblazers;

Those who are young, building worthy achievements;
A good deed, “a word fitly spoken”;

“Apples of gold in pictures of silver”;
A welcoming smile, a nod of approval.

Whenever you can; each day–something, someone–

Praise!

Gary Steven Corseri is the grandson of Ukrainian-Jewish and Sicilian-Catholic immigrants. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and in universities, high schools and Little Theaters. He has published 2 novels, 1 full collection and 1 prize-winning chapbook of poems. His poems, articles, fiction, dramas have appeared in hundreds of global publications & websites, including: Countercurrents, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine, Miami Herald, The New York Times, and Transcend Media Service. He has taught at universities in the U.S. and Japan, and in US prisons and public schools. He has worked as a grape-picker in Australia, a gas-station attendant, and an editor.

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