A Poem

I do not normally read a lot of poetry. In fact, the only motivation I have ever had for reading poetry is the notion that girls like guys who read and memorize poetry. But I stumbled across this one while I was reading a magazine called Geez. I post it here because the poem changed the way I was breathing. It may not do much for you, but it hit me where I am at right now, shifting through adventures and everyday life.

In Light of This, As I’ve

Lived on Board This Boat

By Johanna Skibsrud

It was, then, the way I like it best:

made, as I was, by weather, so aware.

By the contrast of the sun and cold,

each so separate on my skin.

It’s nearly always like that.

In the excess or the absence of a thing that I

appreciate it best. The way I wish I always

could. By plunging myself deeply into it, I mean,

and taking up within it, all the space I can.

Looking back, it’s just, there always seems to be more

room within each moment than, originally, I’d thought.

So that it’s only, then, in retrospect, that I

explore each moment, truly; only then take that great pleasure,

and that’s so sad.

That I do that – and, I do.

Imagine my moments, as I first possess them,

to be so small that I just splash right through,

and don’t notice at first, or particularly,

the space available to me there,

which only later I realize I can fill.

In light of this, I want always to

live as I have lived on board this boat.

To be, always, like this: tired when I sleep,

hungry when I sit to eat, and when I love I want to love

as recklessly as this: when I’ve been,

in my loneliness, desiring.