GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

May 14, 2012

My View: Finding poetry and life 'in the moment'

My View
Rufus Collinson

How amazing is this time of transformation in our world.

As the air and the earth soften, the trees project their leaves, meadows emerge, flowers find their colors, wafts of birdsong inform the morning air.

This is the time for opening. Poetry is a way of life and "being open to life in the moment."

It is about seeing the poetry in a face, a conversation, the quality of light, the timbre of a voice, the velvet softness of a petal, the familiarity of a love.

May you find poetry in your life today.

LILACS

Catching their drift

as I walk from the clothesline

to the barn,

I suddenly know

if true love

were in the air,

it would smell like this.

Holding the flower now

as close as I can

in competition with two fat bees

delirious as I,

I see how many colors it takes

to make a lilac.

There is nothing this moment

but breath and petals,

the nectar and the message —

ÀúRemember now and again

to touch the world softly,

with your tiniest fingers."

Ruthanne "Rufus" Collinson is poet laureate for the city of Gloucester.