A Very Nice Day

It is a gorgeous day in Detroit. The last couple of days have been exceptionally pretty. The temperature is only in the high seventies and the sky is clear. Yesterday, after she got her booster shots, Avery and I walked to the Astoria Bakery in Greektown and got some goodies. (Chocolate cupcake for her, cup of chocolate mousse for me.) We walked around and felt the cool breeze in our hair and felt the warm bands of light from the sun reflecting off high windows down onto the sidewalk. It was really nice. She held my hand the whole time and we talked about the different buildings we saw, the store fronts. At one point, she led me into a hip hop clothing store that sold "Destroy Racism" t-shirts and had the Fresh Prince's "Parents Just Don't Understand" blaring on the PA. It was a lovely, lovely hour of my life that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Anyway, I got to thinking about how I don't write poetry any more. Days like yesterday and today make me wish I did.

I don't though. Or at least I haven't. So, because I'm in the mood for poetry but not in the mood to write it, I'm posting one of my personal faves: Singapore by Mary Oliver. I first read this in 1992 and, to this day, certain images stay with me and I still I wish I had been the one to write some of the lines because they're so good. Anyway, enjoy!

Singapore

In Singapore, in the airport,
A darkness was ripped from my eyes.
In the women’s restroom, one compartment stood open.
A woman knelt there, washing something
in the white bowl.

Disgust argued in my stomach
and I felt, in my pocket, for my ticket.

A poem should always have birds in it.
Kingfishers, say, with their bold eyes and gaudy wings.
Rivers are pleasant, and of course trees.
A waterfall, or if that’s not possible, a fountain
rising and falling.
A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem.

When the woman turned I could not answer her face.
Her beauty and her embarrassment struggled together, and
neither could win.
She smiled and I smiled. What kind of nonsense is this?
Everybody needs a job.

Yes, a person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem.
But first we must watch her as she stares down at her labor,
which is dull enough.
She is washing the tops of the airport ashtrays, as big as
hubcaps, with a blue rag.
Her small hands turn the metal, scrubbing and rinsing.
She does not work slowly, nor quickly, like a river.
Her dark hair is like the wing of a bird.

I don’t doubt for a moment that she loves her life.
And I want to rise up from the crust and the slop
and fly down to the river.
This probably won’t happen.
But maybe it will.
If the world were only pain and logic, who would want it?

Of course, it isn’t.
Neither do I mean anything miraculous, but only
the light that can shine out of a life. I mean
the way she unfolded and refolded the blue cloth,
The way her smile was only for my sake; I mean
the way this poem is filled with trees, and birds.

Mary Oliver