Floors and Doors
Two poems to share today, the first mentions floors, the second centers on doors.
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life –
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
-William Stafford-
In every moment, doors appear—
not literal, of course, with knobs and locks,
but metaphoric, yes, with thresholds and casings
and simple invitations I feel
in my body, an architecture of possibility.
I didn’t used to notice them.
Was it because they weren’t there,
or because I simply had not yet learned
to see them? Now I marvel
at how omnipresent they are,
and all they ask of me is that I choose
to step through them or not.
I recognize them more in my body
than with my mind. As if the body
has spent decades learning, oh, this is what
it feels like when a door appears.
As if the mind is at last learning to say
yes, body, I believe you. Now I trust
that I can change everything with
just one step across that invisible
threshold. Or not. Now I know
once I take that step, I can’t return
to the place I had been. And there will always be
another door. Another door. Another door.
-Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer-
From sunlight on floors, to breathing respect and new glimpses, the first poem just reminds me to be here, now. Ready to experience the day ahead as it unfolds. If I am ruminating on past regrets or future fears, I am not noticing the scents and sounds of now. Grateful living is living in the now.
The second poem offers simple invitations and speaks of the architecture of possibility. There is much beyond our control, but that still leaves much within our individual realm. Where we let our thoughts and feelings take us. What actions and words we choose to share. There’s the choice. Through this door or not. Across this threshold, or another one. Grateful living opens us to possibility.
First, we must see the doors. Start right here, in this room.
