69 Comments
User's avatar
LeighK's avatar

Perfect. I’m smiling.

Michael Mohr's avatar

...And my curse.

Michael Mohr

‘Sincere American Writing’

https://michaelmohr.substack.com/

Jeanne's avatar

Friends are

my fulcrum.

Sunny Hochberg's avatar

Is the telegram message you’re adding to very single comment legit?

Sherman Alexie's avatar

It’s junk. I banished the account.

Sunny Hochberg's avatar

Thanks!

Eleanor Anstruther's avatar

Nice

Bonnie L Samuel's avatar

Yes, it works well. Nice.

Georgena Felicia LPCC's avatar

Bolt of lightening enlightening

Steve Lovelace's avatar

My wife heard staple instead of steeple. Funny it can work also.

Sherman Alexie's avatar

People are my paper clip...

Ennavé Institute's avatar

Great! I think this is the central teaching from A Course in Miracles as well!

Toni Prehoda Kahler's avatar

I sat with this for awhile, just letting my mind wander around in these four connected words. Each word is so much more than a glance. Meanings lead and follow, while images rise fall in my imagination. There's a kind of brilliance in a short poem like this, plus, I've already memorized it, effortlessly!

Now I gotta look up all the meanings of 'steeple', just to take it as far as I can...

Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Toni. Maybe look at each line on its own, too, with its own meaning.

Toni Prehoda Kahler's avatar

Ohhhh, I hadn't done that---ohhh man, yes! I am truly wide open...you flooded me just now...wow...

Amanda Wald Rachie's avatar

Wow! A sublime 6 seconds.

When I do what I learned as a child, folding my hands together, reciting "Here is the church and here is the steeple," and ending with "open the door and see all the people," there are 6 people in my hand church. I remember clasping my hands in a different way with my fingers on my knuckles and finishing up with, "open the door, where are the people?"

I listened to "Humanism" before reading it. Because I'm a little hard of hearing, I was puzzled by what I thought I heard:

People are

nice people.

Adding a comma:

People are

nice, people.

Sherman Alexie's avatar

Those commas are powerful!

Felix Purat's avatar

That must be a pretty big steeple.

Kathy Morefield's avatar

Wow! So short but so huge!

Sherman Alexie's avatar

Thank you, Kathy.

Cynthia Gaylor's avatar

I thought of that hand thing kids do- Here's the church , Here's the steeple, Open the doors , and there's the people 🙂

Sherman Alexie's avatar

I thought of that, too!

Kate Bradley's avatar

May I put it on a t-shirt with credit to you? I love it; the title word isn't necessary. Thanks!

Tara Penry's avatar

From the voiceover: “I think this one does it.” I agree. 🥳👏