I hope the title didn't mislead you into thinking I was actually dusting! Well, maybe just a little bit; I did dust the dining room table before I arranged the tablecloth on it. I wanted to have a place to set the pumpkin pies and apple crisp that I'm making today. But I digress. While I was doing this small amount of dusting, I found myself admiring the motes dancing in the sun coming through the window. I thought, "Surely, there must be a poem about this," and I was not surprised to find a perfect one. I'm sharing it with you, in case you might also be doing the tiniest bit of dusting .
Thank you for these tiny
particles of ocean salt,
pearl-necklace viruses,
winged protozoans:
for the infinite,
intricate shapes
of submicroscopic
living things.
For algae spores
and fungus spores,
bonded by vital
mutual genetic cooperation,
spreading their
inseparable lives
from equator to pole.
My hand, my arm,
make sweeping circles.
Dust climbs the ladder of light.
For this infernal, endless chore,
for these eternal seeds of rain:
Thank you. For dust.
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Nelson, Marilyn. "Dusting". Magnificat, Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
You can read more about Marilyn Nelson here.
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I hope you are enjoying the dancing dust motes, or maybe appreciating it just a little bit.
I'm not sure I wanted to think about what's in the dust so much, but I am certainly looking at it a bit differently! And now I'm also reminded that I need to dust before everyone comes on Thursday (or perhaps I can hand that off to the teen who is off from school this week).
ReplyDeleteNot sure I am thankful for dust, but I do like this poem! I'll do a little dusting when I iron a fall tablecloth to go on the table and clean up the kitchen a bit. Tomorrow is when I will bake a pumpkin pie and get a few other things ready.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little girl (and, okay . . . I'll admit it . . . even still) I was (am) entranced by the dust I could "see" in sunbeams coming in the windows of my house. I thought it was magical, actually, even once I discovered that it was . . . just dust. I love this poem! Thanks for finding it - and sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis is just poem perfection! A brilliant poet who takes the mundane, most avoided task (at least in my household) and give it a bit of awe and wonder. Thank you so much for sharing this today!
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