Greetings, readers, and welcome again to Wednesday Words. This time we consider the values offered in an old poem—with a murky origin story described below—famously called “Desiderata.”
The poem is one you may have heard or read that urges us to basically keep calm, carry on, and be a good person on this planet.
We might think, yeah, easy to say, hard to do. Despite the challenge, it feels worthwhile to make an effort, to jump over the poem’s high bar for respectful, thoughtful behavior, to exhibit the best things about being human.
I write this thinking of a metaphor: the Olympic athletes we recently saw on TV executing the high jump, clearing that bar, landing safely on the giant pillow resting beneath.
“Desiderata” – first stanza
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
To read the entire poem …
Click here.
“Desiderata” – its origin
On the website for The Poetry Foundation, we learn this from writer, Daniel Nestor:
The poem’s origin story seemed murky from the start. Some held that it was written during the late 17th century by an anonymous Baltimore cleric. Others have regarded it as a kind of folk wisdom, an authorless credo that popped up at some point around the Summer of Love. But it was created in the American heartland in 1927 by an Indiana-born poet-lawyer, the son of German immigrants. Its author, Max Ehrmann, was never part of the poetry establishment. …
What fascinates me is how “Desiderata” became a meme before the word was coined, how it went viral the analog way, transmitted through the culture by way of churchmen and statesmen, hippies and Hollywood actors, and one dedicated widow. Loosely translated from Latin as “things desired,” “Desiderata” is still sought out, imprinted on shower curtains, made into picture books for dog lovers, quoted on Twitter. Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean, has the entire text of the poem tattooed on his back.
Daniel Nester | The Poetry Foundation
Thanks for reading!
Best wishes from your writer on the wing,
Charlene
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Peggy+Lantz
Ah, yes. Desiderata. What a wonderful statement. I first became acquainted with this in the 1960s, I think, and sang a choral version of it with the choir I was directing in the early 1970s. Good to take to heart.
Charlene Edge
It is lovely, isn’t it?
Kathleen Brandt
I can remember a musical version being on the radio. This would have been in the groovy 70s! I think it was mostly the first and then the last couple of verses, not the whole poem.
Interesting to see where it came from!
Charlene L. Edge
Cool. I’m going to try to find a musical version.
Charlene L. Edge
Hey, I just found it put to music. 1971.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WDL-xgltho
Sara Schlossman
Folk wisdom, a meme before memes, so much “a thing” that my mother (definitely not a Summer of Love participant) had the poem framed and set way back on her bookshelf, to be found by me when I gathered her belongings after her passing. I have her framed version in view and sometimes I think about (try to conjure, really) how those words resonated within her.
Charlene L. Edge
What a sweet memory. Thanks, Sara!