Life Shining
Musing about possible topics for this post. When I read this poem by Lori Levy, it seemed this was more than enough to pass on. The lines are a reminder that ordinary life is a smorgasbord of delightful details. Often what I lack, is sufficient inner calm to notice the play of everything going on around me. My sensibilities become dull due to the voices always clamoring in my head. And there are the competing speculative tales of all kinds on the internet news feeds. All of that is just “stuff” empty calories, filler. On the other hand, that takes place within the zone of my senses, is my serving of form and of color and of auditory and of tactile pleasure.
Gratitude
by Lori Levy
Where is it today?
I can’t find it, can’t feel it.
I think I chased it away
with my complaints, my disappointment.
Must be hiding outside—
in the neighbor’s rosebushes, perhaps,
or in the purple Russian sage down the street.
Wait. Why down the street?
It doesn’t hide: it waits to be found.
It’s probably here in my house, curled up
with my complaints—napping in the gloom
until I welcome it again.
I think it’s peeking at me now
from the bubbles in the bathtub
where a five-year-old—
my Rio Belle, my granddaughter—
pours soapy water in a cup,
serves me coffee, cappuccino,
then shoos me away and tells me
to come back as a new customer.
I remind her that her hair needs washing.
You’re being so dramatic, she responds.
I crack up, she guffaws,
we call each other hilarious—
life shining again, like the olive oil
and lemon on the salad I made earlier,
fresh as the taste of gratitude.
Perhaps you’d enjoy receiving in your inbox every day a poem similar to this one? ClICK HERE
2 thoughts on “Life Shining”
In the handout of have for my various photography classes, there is a section I refer to as Being Open. Here are a few words from the handout that I believe relate to Lori Levy’s poem:
“Every day that I head out with my camera, I know that somewhere is a really good photograph waiting to be taken. I don’t have a clue as to where it is or when I might find it, but I know it is there. Yet there are also days I’m distracted. There is something on my mind or I’m tired or just a grump. On those days the scene waiting to be photographed may be right in front of me and I just won’t see it.”
Every day I need reminding of this.