In terms of the literary forms that are in use in it the blogosphere is terribly, pitiably impoverished. The most common form in use is the essay or a subspecies of the essay, the newspaper column. Other forms that are fairly common are the diatribe, the polemic, and the diary entry. You’ll occasionally see a quip or a remembrance.
Indeed, one of the things that I love about Lance Mannion’s blog, linked in my rather select blogroll at the right, is that Lance explores other forms. So does Gerard Vanderleun, the author of American Digest, also on my blogroll.
One form that I don’t ever recall having seen in the blogosphere is the blessing. Here’s an example of a blessing that I heard recently, written by a master of the form, the late, blessed John O’Donohue:
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
Note: a currach is a kind of fishing vessel. I think it’s cognate with “coracle”.
One of the challenges of writing a blessing is that it must be done without irony and, since irony is the prevailing if not the only tone nowadays, that’s a tall and unfamiliar order.
I may try my hand at writing a few, although my efforts probably won’t be as poetic as O’Donohue’s. It would probably do me good.
