I was carried away by Jessica’s contribution today. I was unaware of Hopkin’s poetry. While sharing some of the whimsy of Lewis Carroll’s verse, it stays safely familiar. I followed the links on Wikipedia to Poet’s Graves and was smitten by The May Magnificat.
I
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
I saw a great horned owl at the Arboretum last weekend. I bundled up and set out for a walk on the last day before the temperatures were forecast to settle below freezing, where they are now. I walked briskly over Peter’s Hill and to my favorite section, Conifer Path, where the color palette changes to ocean blue and dark green with subtle reds here and there, and the noise of the nearby street and of your own footsteps is softened by the layers of pine needles. I wish I had a better camera but I will try to describe to you how lovely it is there, in all seasons, but especially whatever the current…
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everdeepening 
Brian, I bet you would love Frederick Buechner’s book Speak What We Feel: Not What We Ought to Say. He talks about four writers, Shakespeare, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mark Twain, and G.K. Chesterton, and how they each “wrote in blood” at some point in their lives. It’s a quick read, but so interesting and profound.
Thanks for the referral. I’ll try to find it.
Are you familiar with Santayana’s “Three Philosophical Poets?”