you are a poem

hello dear world,

have I told you how lovely you are? Because you are – illuminating. The other day on the bus, where I spend at least fourteen (blissful) hours a week, it was raining (and so already perfect for dreamers). I sat in front of the doors, and every time they opened I was given a glimpse into a poem – a red house amidst a field, the neon light of a liquor store, green leaves reflected in a puddle, a boy in yellow boots crying. Poetry, I believe, is everywhere.

I have begun “teaching” the subject after school with two of my friends, at the high school about a mile from my home. It is nothing very dramatic – it is only a little over an hour of writing and talking about poetry once a week. The students are so smart and passionate – I probably learn more from them then they ever will of me. We are beginning a conversation of what poetry is: how it is formed, what makes good poetry, how it is different and similar to other art forms. 

Poetry shapes my vision of the world: as I was walking to the high school today, waving to my acquaintances along our street, watching the man across the road pouring soil from a bag next to his roses, smiling as a woman said "How are you dear?" as I passed her on the street, I was overwhelmed with an everyday and ordinary beauty. 

We went apple picking Saturday, and have spent the weekend baking apple things and having people over. It is simple, does not exactly sound profound, but then, the most profound things do not easily reveal themselves: the heat of the oven as you pull a cake out, drinking coffee and eating apple pancakes with your friends, arranging tables, lighting candles, watching movies, singing music in the family room. These "things" are what I imagine as the church - spending time with people, who believe or don't believe in God, talking of the terrible and the beautiful, in ourselves and the world; worshipping together in the "ordinary" miracles. 

One came in the form of a woman and her daughter yesterday, who came by our house because they heard we were tutoring. Mark, our Cornell graduate in civil engineering, has already planned a day to help her with her physics homework. 

What I am listening to as I write to you: "Tomorrow on the Runway" by The Innocent Mission. And... this post will also be published on the Create website.