Thank You–Yes!

“To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest source of all personal happiness.”

Bertrand Russell

 

Here’s a simple poem that never made it out as the “New Years” greeting. Watch for another feature story soon and poetry from a lovely Portland voice.

Thank You–Yes!

Say thanks to what is,

mug of chai heating hands,

squint under crystal sky,

snow flakes shaped

by tiny mittens

that prop carrot to grow

as a new-man’s nose.

 

Say yes to invitations, rice bowl, pasta.

yes to stronger, the stranger who carries more than his own bricks,

a note or phone call

long-delayed–one that keeps you up at night.

 

Say thank you to the way things are.

Know failure–lost love, cancer’s return, broken

wings, beets lost to deep freeze–seldom

all it seems,

offers–eventually–new root.

 

For now, I breathe–and sing myself these words–smiling

into shoes that warm the frozen earth of winter.

 

I can reshape any story.

We have that power.

 

Thank you for the moment,

for your breath.

Thanks for all you remind me

even when I don’t want to remember.

 

May we share honey and daisies,

blooming from dazzle

as daylight returns.