Poets share poems penned during pandemic

Members of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship have been staying connected in a variety of ways during the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis.

“In April, David Marshak, co-president of the HUUF board, generated a series of weekly Zoom conversations for fellowship members and friends to meet the need we all felt to engage together during the pandemic. They include ‘How We Nurture Ourselves in Place’ with Terry Uyeki, a ‘Writer’s Corner’ with Eve Anderson and book discussions on multicultural topics,” said Pat McCutcheon, who facilitates another of the fellowship’s Zoom groups, “Friday Afternoon Poets.”

During Sunday’s 11 a.m. Zoom service, the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will present a program called “Sheltering in Poems,” with a number of HUUF writers — Friday Afternoon Poets participants and others — sharing poems they’ve written during these past months. The works vary a great deal, McCutcheon said, from limericks to love poems — but were all written in these tumultuous times.

“We poets have been working at home and coming together weekly to share our poems, thoughts and common concerns about life today in this place during a pandemic,” said Friday Afternoon Poets writer Jean Munsee. “We have also looked at thoughts of betterknown poets far and wide who have written of the human condition and life and its beauty, its sorrow, its meaning. Meeting and sharing thoughts, ideas and emotions help clarify and strengthen us participants.”

Here’s one of the poems Munsee wrote:

“Daisies, mop heads dance

In the sun as the wind blows

Do they love the day? Do they know that they and love

Have only today to dance?”

To watch the live Zoom poetry service Sunday, go to huuf.org to access the link and get the Meeting ID. Services can also be viewed by visiting the fellowship’s YouTube channel, listed under Humboldt UU Fellowship.

“We poets have been working at home and coming together weekly.”