Growing and rising slowly
to the height above disbelief,
we may be touched by the sky.
Perceiving that words don’t tell
where angels dwell, it will be still.
What we heard, is a presence in itself.
Seven, Ten, Twelve –
let’s count our best blessings
and accept some ordeals or misfortunes.
Can we feel blessed indeed then
with plenty of things not happening to us?
But that’s no relief to lots of creatures far or near!
The swift and skittish starlings are heedless,
free? Well, at least we don’t need to eat worms.
A grasshopper drops by; they’re not in the past only!
And a tiny flower survives the mower.
So, many thanks for today, that may bring more.
No gloom, please; it seems to become wonderfully serene.
In the gleam of a durable sun
and ever-full moon, the swans fly this way.
They can lift their own weights, with those who participate.
Arno Bohlmeijer holds an MA in English Lit, BA French, and is a bilingual author in English & Dutch. He is winner of the National Charlotte Köhler Prize, finalist for the 2018 Gabo Prize, and finalist for the 2018 Poetry Matters Project. Arno has been published in five countries.
