It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry. I never have a good response when the clerk asks if I've found everything; this poem has given me one that I will be using for a while.
Everything, Anything
by Laura Grace Weldon
by Laura Grace Weldon
“Find everything you’re looking for?” a clerk asks
and I say, “I’m still looking for world peace.”
“Can I get you anything else?” a nurse asks
and I say, “Yes, a safe haven for refugees.”
For a millisecond, their faces soften
as they take a deep breath of imagining
then laugh or shake their heads
or commiserate. For a few minutes
we might even discuss
our planet’s highest possibilities.
Maybe that deep breath,
that imagining,
is a starting place.
and I say, “I’m still looking for world peace.”
“Can I get you anything else?” a nurse asks
and I say, “Yes, a safe haven for refugees.”
For a millisecond, their faces soften
as they take a deep breath of imagining
then laugh or shake their heads
or commiserate. For a few minutes
we might even discuss
our planet’s highest possibilities.
Maybe that deep breath,
that imagining,
is a starting place.
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Weldon, Grace Laura. "Everything, Anything." Poems of Presence II, edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby Wilson, Grayson Books, 2023, pg. 48.
You can read more about the poet here.
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A very appropriate poem for our troubling times! Thank you for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI just love that poem, Bonny! (In fact, it was one on my "short-list" for today's gathering.) Poetry just has a way of speaking the words we need to hear. XO
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect poem for how the world feels right now. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteA most apropos poem for the times.
ReplyDeletePerfect!! I will be using some of those lines as well.
ReplyDeleteOh Bonny, this poem is so perfect. I've been thinking a lot about imagination lately (I think it started when I read a Marilynne Robinson essay months back that drove home the point that imagination drives progress - if we can't imagine something, we don't work to make it real) ... and I'm trying VERY HARD to imagine what that kind of peace looks like.
ReplyDeleteI love this poem. Like others, I might borrow some of those lines. The word imagining brings to mind a phrase Krista Tippett often uses, "moral imagination." What if we had more leaders in this country with a moral imagination? if only . . .
ReplyDeletebeautiful for our times right now.
ReplyDeleteThis poem brought tears to my eyes... thank you so much for sharing, Bonny!
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