Poetry Jam: A Common Thread

I've come across these today, finding a message of daily, ordinary miracles:

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.  Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.  Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.  Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return." --Mary Jean Iron, quoted from A Grateful Heart -=-=-=-=-=-

"Otherwise"


I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

--Jane Kenyon
from Otherwise, 1996
Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Copyright 1996 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon.
All rights reserved.


-=-=-=-=-=-

“The Orange"


At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I got a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It's new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over. 
I love you. I'm glad I exist.



by Wendy Cope, from Serious Concerns (Faber & Faber).


(N.B.  Funny how being a mom of twins effects things.  I read this last poem as about motherhood, with Robert and Dave young twins--eating a quarter of an orange--and the mom thrilled to have time to shop or walk in the park--"new" after those hard early days.  She finished her to do list and likes her spouse (which you don't always when you're sleep deprived) and is glad to be alive!  I made it all up but it works for me.)