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i am a little church LbNA #60473 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:pennylodge
Plant date:Jul 30, 2011
Location: Madison Church, Village Road
City:Madison
County:Carroll
State:New Hampshire
Boxes:1
Found by: Cookie Bear
Last found:Jul 10, 2019
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFr
Last edited:Jul 5, 2016
The poet EE Cummings (1894-1962) and his wife Marion were returning to their summer home in Silver Lake after dinner at the Conway Café. As they traveled along Rte.113 in Madison they were struck by the sight of a large crowd outside this small, white church. It was brightly lit and its simple bell could be heard echoing through the hills. It was VE Day, May 1945. World War II was over. The people in Madison and the surrounding communities were gathered to celebrate, pray and give thanks. Cummings got out of his car and stood among the trees to observe a very special moment in time created by simple folks from small towns. He returned to his Joy Farm and the artist’s loft built for him by his father many years before and wrote:

i am a little church (no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
-i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when the sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth’s own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying) children
whose sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection;
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope, and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

i am a little church (far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish) at peace with nature
-i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring, i lift my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever;
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)

Lazar,David. NH Troubadour www.nhtroubadour.com/feature/big-poem-for-a-little-church/

Clues:
Starting at the Madison Town Hall, follow Rte. 113 north/east for .6 of a mile to the stop sign. Turn left. The Madison Church established in 1789 will be on your left. Walk behind the church and find the row of boulders lining the parking area. Stand next to the boulder farthest from the church. With the church at your back, walk downwards towards the forest edge for about 35 average paces. Look for the little “island of trees” to your right. Stand between the island and the forest edge. Notice a cluster of five or so small to medium trees near the "island." One of them will have a rusty horseshoe hanging in it about four feet off the ground. Please do not disturb the horseshoe. You should be able to reach your prize behind the little cluster of trees without trampling any vegetation. Please replace the Letterbox exactly as you found it.


Hike length: 0.1 miles