Monday, March 12, 2007

Today

I've been trying to figure out what to say about today, but Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the US, has done it for me with his poem "Today."

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

1 comment:

Ruth said...

Great poem! I love Billy Collins. Hard to teach middle schoolers on a day like that, huh?