I’m making a more conscious effort to notice the good things in my days, the things that make me smile or stand out as uniquely beautiful, amidst the routine and the expected. Often, these things are small: a good night’s sleep, a fresh cup of coffee, animal tracks in the snow, a kind interaction at the store, seeing the stars at night. A friend calls these “sparkling moments.”

I think these things make our days poetic, so what if we moved through our days considering them poems in and of themselves?

I’ll start.

A day, in a poem

I wake as the darkness lingers,
the day slow to make itself known.
Still I begin, coffee in hand,
house fills with quiet conversation.
The roads are clear, there are places to go.
I work toward a worthy outcome,
I let the shortcomings roll out of view.
I make myself busy, but only in the good kind of way.
The sun moves with time,
casting shadows I cannot ignore,
a reminder that this day will be memory.
I close the laptop, lock the office,
stand and consider how I spend my hours.
I return home, hold a loved one close,
look at the sky before turning off the lights.
These are the moments of a day,
these are the lines of a poem.

Now your turn. Walk through the reality of a simple day in your own life.

What about your ordinary may also be sparkling?

Throughout my time as the writer-in-residence, I hope to collect poems and compile a sort of anthology reflecting the many variations of life lived in Racine. If you’d like to have your poems considered for inclusion, or if you’d simply like to share your work with someone, please send me a note at sklblauren@gmail.com.

Many thanks,
L.A. Sklba