Most Mornings — Paint the Day

I love it when people reach back to share a comment, or an appreciation, or an insight, or an attraction, to a line from a poem. I love hearing what people notice.

Most Mornings is a collection of poems I wrote — 37 of them. Published recently (CentreSpoke 2022). With each poem, there is of course some story and some context that gives rise to the prose.

Recently a man reached back to be with his appreciation for the poem “Paint the Day” (p. 27). He said, “great start for my day.” I know that this man will often open to a random page — welcoming serendipity to guide.

When I hear from people, I often delight — either to see what has caught people’s attention, or to recall some of the impulse that had me writing that particular poem.

In “Paint the Day” I write of some of the struggle with time that many of us have, trying to eek more from the day. But, I also shift that narrative, to connect it to a deeper yearning — that is to experience “unbounded freedom” and to bring forward artistry, not just obligation. For that artistry to “brush beyond bondage” that contemporary life can so often insist upon.

Enjoy. May there be moments of undeniable artistry.

Paint the Day

Has it ever been true
that there is more time today
than any other day?

Or course not.
Minutes are minutes.
Hours are hours.

So many devices of contemporary life
remind us that time moves quickly.

So many devices spell us
to cope our way through fear and lack.

Yet, so many of us yearn,
for the unbounded freedom
to paint the day into being.

We seek
to begin anew
brushed beyond bondage.