Beauty in the Little Things

It has been a very busy few months, starting with the "superstorm" through the holidays and now into the new year. I have to say it has been mostly good with the exciting fun of my first two blog tours and all the new contacts. But it has also been a bit of swirling, caught up in the moment craziness.

This past week I have forced myself to take a step back and take a deep breath. I just love it when I feel the calm oozing through every corner of my body and let the tumult of life give way to a state of relaxation, even if only for a moment.

So, when I was in that, relaxed, quiet, calm state my brain, of course, didn't stay still. I remembered one of my first poems:

Bare Branches

Sunlight falls on bare branches

Pale blue sky over-arches.

Peaceful winter solitude

Waiting beside a city street.

 

Who can see it? Who cannot?

Do you feel it in your heart?

All the beauty all around

Where you find it, if you look.

 

Hustle, bustle, race around.

Deadlines, meetings, have to do.

Time is short, can't slow down.

Too much work, too far to go.

 

But then you stop and look up;

Pause a minute, slow inhale.

Beauty, all around. Just one

Minute makes all the difference.

 

from Conditions 

 

And then I thought of how many little things really make me happy. And they are always there. A loved one's touch or voice. The dappling of the sun on the ground. The patterns of the clouds. The sound of the swirling wind or the patter of rain from safely under cover. The luxuriousness of a completely relaxed, sleeping cat. The twinkling stars on a cold clear winter night.

The devil is in the details. But so is the angel.

Wonder

The wonder comes by, now, in the quiet times

Softly taking its place like some remembered rhymes

I find it now in the glow of your eyes

Or the fascination with a politician’s lies

No longer the thing of everyday

More like a friend once gone away

Who returns to pick up where we left off

Like nothing happened in between, laugh.

I like the wonder of the small things

Things lost before in the thunder of wings

Or the marvel of an immense buffalo herd

Reduced to the glamour of a single bird

The edges of your mouth when it starts to smile

The confusion of a teen when he sees a phone dial

The wonder is all that and more, by the bye

Little things that bring a twinkle to the eye.

from Observations

My second book of poetry is available in Kindle version (on Amazon) and in paperback everywhere (you may have to order it at brick and mortar shops). This one is just poems and continues the contemplative, observational, calming, style of Conditions.

Also available in other formats on Smashwords.com (10/10/13).

Of course you can preview on Amazon, but here are a couple further into the book:

Little Bird

Little bird, where do you go

When the rain beats down

And the wind does howl and blow?

 

It can’t be far; you’re always out

As soon as the sun

Returns and the kids begin to shout.

 

Your tiny voice is so very loud;

When you leave there’s silence.

So I’m happy to see a break in cloud,

 

Knowing you’ll soon be back!

Passed By

It’s coming!

Wind picking up, gusting, cool.

Clouds piling up, darkening.

The birds excited, racing about.

Thunder rumbling, deep and throaty,

Still distant.

It’s coming!

The wind swirls; you almost

Taste the rain coming.

The trees bend and sway

As the thunder comes closer

And the birds disappear.

It’s coming!

A patch of blue?

The clouds streaming by, breaking up

Thunder less distinct

Wind suddenly weaker

Where’d it go?

Passed us by.

The Bog

 Limpid pools of dark oily water

Call with enchantment strong

As magic can be.

Frogs skitter at the edges

Disturbed by boys’ silent noisy progress.

Muck sucks joyously

At sneakers filling them

With sulfurous black goo.

Spiders hang dangerously close

To the surface, barely visible

In the mystic gloom.

Treasures lurk just below the surface –

Beer cans, half their labels dissolved,

Husks of bottle rockets, and even,

To the lucky, a mud-sodden baseball.

Mom won’t like the treasures

Or the pieces of bog

Tenaciously carried home.

But nothing she says can stay the lure

Of the dim, smelly, bog.

Publication

This morning I published my first ebook, a collection of poems titled Conditions, illustrated with photos taken by my friend Karen O'Malia. I have been working on the collection for about 5 months. But the excitement I felt this morning upon publication was out of all proportion to my expectations.

I have no illusions of the small electronic tome being a million-seller. In fact, at this point, I don't care if I sell any. The journey to create it and format it and actually push the button and see it available for purchase was so enjoyable and the rush of seeing it as an actual publication so large, the rest is gravy.

It was wonderful to collaborate with Karen, with whom I have been friends for well over half my life. It was also fun to get feedback from people I was both close with and others who were just casual acquaintances but who had some experience with publishing or editing or writing.

While in the formatting and pre-publishing phases I continued to work on more poems and am about a third of the way toward another volume. Generally, I think, they are getting better. But the most fun is writing them and talking about them and showing them and getting feedback.

I certainly hope I sell a few copies. I know I'll write more.