Let's Hear it for Art and Poetry

Wonderful poetry reading and writing group gathered at our new Highline Cafe in Greencastle with interesting ideas and poems. Came there after attending the miniature art show opening in Chambersburg. Glad to have been juried in to this prestigious show. Tomorrow, another opening in Frederick where four of my prints are included in a group show with the Women's Caucus of the Arts of DC. Art and poetry and the love of family and friends will have to sustain me through these difficult times. Here's what Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote in Sonnet XXIV:

Let the world's sharpness like a clasping knife
Shut in upon itself and do no harm
In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,
And let us hear no sound of human strife
After the click of the Shutting. Life to life--
I lean upon thee, Dear, without alarm,
And feel as safe as guarded by a charm
Against the stab of worldlings, who if rife
Are weak to injure. Very whitely still
The lilies of our lives may reassure
their blossoms from their roots, accessible
Alone to heavenly dews that drop not fewer;
Growing straight, out of man's reach, on the hill
God only, who made us rich, can make us poor.