Plain Beauty

For some reason, the link to my curtal sonnet, "Plain Beauty", published in May 2017 in The Rotary Dial is non-functional, so I've included it in this blog post. It was one of six different types of sonnets I read on Saturday evening at the campfire reading at the Parc nature Les Forestiers-de-Saint-Lazare, in the little village where I live. A photo of me reading, taken by Brian Campbell, is below.

Plain Beauty

Glory be to God for homely things—

            For muddy boots and oil-stained dungarees;

                        For calloused hands that knead and scrub and hem;

Threadbare baby blankets; apron strings;

            Those first attempts to write the ABCs;

                        And tone-deaf lullabies at 3 a.m.

All things modest, unassuming, rough;

            Rag rugs, first drafts, eucalyptus trees;

                        Plain-spoken poems (foliage . . . leaf and stem);

They whelm the world in love. It’s not enough.

                                    Love them.

Catherine Chandler, August 12, 2017 Parc nature Les Forestiers-de-Saint-Lazare