A good poem like a good friend makes me smile; and so it was — and is — with this one. Particularly because, while weeding, I caught sight of sunlight and shadow playing among the lilies beneath the elderberry while black-eyed Susans stood as spectators; and I couldn't help but take off my gloves and go for my camera. He found me crouching on the driveway and felt relieved to learn it was due only to my irresistible urge to pay attention to the beauty before me — the fairy tale kingdom where time and light are kinds of love and where love speaks and where those who listen can hear.
THE WORD
by Tony Hoagland, American poet
Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,
between "green thread"
and "broccoli," you find
that you have penciled "sunlight."
Resting on the page, the word
is beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend
and sunlight were a present
he had sent from someplace distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,
and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing
that also needs accomplishing.
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds
of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder
or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,
but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom
still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,
—to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.
I love how you engaged in the spirit of the poem Janet - as you so often do - by stopping, as if it were a duty, to take pleasure in the things around you. And the camera is such the perfect tool to facilitate that process. Here, the black eyed Susans display the truth so gloriously.
