My Rebecca belongs to so many writing groups and singing groups that it is hard for a guy to keep up. But one long lasting and not so regular group writes poetry. They have this one idea about how to have this fun. Members receive eight words and they have eight days to write a poem and then they get together and everyone reads theirs.

Somehow My Rebecca is in on this network and now after a long absence the group called a gathering around these eight words:

dark fear amaze shaking dead world threats answer

So here is what she came up with:

Pandemic

Shall I talk about how we are in a dark time?

Keep track of the world and her dead?

Catalogue the threats contained in our daily lives?

We all know this–it’s all anyone talks about.

I do not want fear to be the answer.

As the great Sufi poet Hafiz said,

“Fear is the cheapest room in the house.”

Let’s not dwell there, okay?

I want the things I see to amaze me.

I want to be overwhelmed with the beauty

Of the world and her people.

I await Nature’s dazzling treasures.

If this is some giant hand

Shaking the tree of the world to shed the old leaves,

I will try to hang on as tight as I can,

And if I cannot, I do not want to waste my last days in fear.

I will rest in the bliss of the quiet moment,

Savor each distant hello!

And try to be grateful for all the myriad blessings

That the world has rained down upon me.

Fondly. Rebecca

So there you have it. Such a beautiful poem from such a grim list, well except “amaze” which it seems carried the weight. I’m impressed, nice work Rebecca.

Finding the wiggle room in hard and dark situations is a talent to appreciate and foster. Let’s have more of that stuff!

let’s have more of that stuff loves, Felipé.