Don’t look for the poem
Just exist, but exist attentively
Leave the confines of the room
If you cannot,
You must let the outside in
Open the window, lift the curtains
Stare at the outside you have let in
Don’t look for the poem
Just live, but live mindfully
You would wonder
At how beautiful the new sun is
As it shines through the leaves of trees
Which split its rays into many slender-limbed stars of gold
You would wonder
At the little birds that fleet in and out of the trees and sing as they do
And at the other birds you cannot see but which sing just as heartily
You would wonder
If the birds and the cockerels share a reason
For singing most heartily in the morning
And what prompts the donkey to bray
If you were to write these thoughts down, you would have written a poem.
Don’t look for the poem
Just be present, but be truly present when you are present.
Wendell Berry said once in a poem, that to be a poet, you must stay away from screens, and stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in. I try, and fail every-time, to do as Wendell Berry says. But whenever I put away the screens long enough, I find a poem in me.
You can find more of the author’s work on her blog, YÉMU.
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