Poetry Jam: Gateway Drug

Our minister called poetry a gateway drug to mindfulness, gratitude, and even prayer during our membership class on Saturday.  True, in its way, I think:  I took both a poetry and a prayer online class last year!

So, here's another "ordinary day miracle" poem I've read recently, in the wonderful collection Good Poems (ed. Garrison Keillor):

Welcome Morning
 
There is joy 
in all: 
in the hair I brush each morning, 
in the Cannon towel, newly washed, 
that I rub my body with each morning, 
in the chapel of eggs I cook 
each morning, 
in the outcry from the kettle 
that heats my coffee 
each morning, 
in the spoon and the chair 
that cry "hello there, Anne" 
each morning, 
in the godhead of the table 
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon 
each morning.
 
All this is God, 
right here in my pea-green house 
each morning 
and I mean, 
though often forget, 
to give thanks, 
to faint down by the kitchen table 
in a prayer of rejoicing 
as the holy birds at the kitchen window 
peck into their marriage of seeds.
 
So while I think of it, 
let me paint a thank-you on my palm 
for this God, this laughter of the morning, 
lest it go unspoken.
 
The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard, 
dies young.
 
~ Anne Sexton ~