Chelan Harkin: Lay Your Thanks Upon Everything

Wow!!! Stunning! Fabulous! Beautiful and true. Thank you so much to Chelan Harkin for her deep heart of love and all that flows through her. Such needed gifts in our beautiful hurting world. As always, deepest bow. 🙏💗 Molly

Photo by Molly

Lay Your Thanks Upon Everything

A prerequisite of poetry

is the inbreath of astonishment--

and don’t make this hard for yourself.

Astonishment is the secret

within every ordinary thing

that tells itself to you when you get close

and comfortable with it.

You needn’t make the flower

uncomfortable

by forcing her into a stare off

for several hours first

intimidating her into telling you

her secrets--

Grace is dulled by this.

You needn’t interrogate

the moon

demanding that she spit out strings

of pearlescent stanzas,

and you don't need to pretzel your body

into a meditation or yoga position

that makes it whimper

and force it to stay.

You needn’t force your edge-less heart

to conform to any hard mold

or try so hard

to squeeze color from the sunset

like a vibrant, cosmic pimple.

You needn't work so hard

to extract beauty from yourself

or this soft,

generous world.

Just notice how things are,

the grace of the way

things have landed in your life:

Savor your coffee,

notice the clutter

of things on your shelf--

that collection of tidbits

from the peculiar and utterly magical gift

of your only life

and from that place,

not manicured and controlled

but loose haired and uniquely yours,

just start saying something about it.

Walk into the woods

and lay your thanks

upon everything

like sunlight

and poetry, that beauty creature,

will emerge and approach you.

 ― Chelan Harkin

https://chelanharkin.com/