gentle things and small moments (a poem, revisited)

September 8, 2023

gentle things and small moments (a poem, revisited)

3 Comments

I posted a dark poem yesterday, Devil Winds Laugh While We Argue About Why, about the heat and our world. It’s odd how funny I feel after posting something negative, like I need to apologize.

Of course I don’t … as Joe Linker said about the poem in his kind reply to my comment on his poem Keeping Cool,

“I read that poem earlier. It gives off some heat! Lets off steam. Good work.”

Thank you, Joe! I’m a sucker for positive feedback.

Letting off steam is OK and even healthy, and yet I still felt the need to post something positive today. But it’s almost 6:00 p.m. on Friday and I’ve been hunched at a computer thinking really hard all day, so I wanted to do something really short and then get on with Friday night festivities. Luckily, I captured images of several really special moments in nature at Gumbo Cove from our Labor Day weekend trip that would definitely suffice.

The first thing I wanted to share was this double rainbow that greeted us when we arrived. It felt like a hug from the sky.

Double rainbow hovering over a house on stilts in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

The next was a beautiful sunset, another big hug from the sky.

Gorgeous sunset over the bayou in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

There was a juvenile heron who let me get close enough to take a nice profile pic.

Juvenile heron by the canal in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

The final one was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, posed on the railing of the deck where we had our lunch one rainy afternoon. It was so incredibly peaceful. I wanted to write a short poem or haiku about the simple pleasure of a PB&J on a rainy day, the comfort of a childhood taste memory, the surge of mindfulness and even joy when you smell the rain.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a rainy day on the deck looking over the bayou in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

But then something tickled the back of my mind… would I be plagiarizing myself?

Hadn’t I written a similar poem before? Some kind of ode to peanut butter and simple pleasures?

Yes, Dear Readers, I had.

I was also at Gumbo Cove when I wrote it, just after 2019 turned the page to 2020. It’s one of my favorites because of the gentle sweetness and memories it conjures. So I’m sharing it again as the yin to yesterday’s yang, or perhaps it’s the yang to yesterday’s yin?

The post from January 2 of 2020 is repeated below.


gentle things and small moments

the warmth of a kitchen
a piano being played in another room
seeing the world through another’s eyes
the heart-breaking nostalgia of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
feeling a small hand in yours
the grace of a bird taking flight
egret taking flight
An egret taking flight at Watts Bayou in Bay St. Louis near Gumbo Cove
 

Everyone touches the world in their own way. Making my own tiny imprint through this blog, I want to write more about the small moments and gentle things in life.


And so it goes – I’m finding balance between darkness and light, through nature, poetry, PB&J, whimsy, mindfulness, letting off steam sometimes, and most importantly, my interactions with wonderful humans.

How do you find the balance?

© 2023, Glover Gardens



3 thoughts on “gentle things and small moments (a poem, revisited)”

  • Love it!

    Just concentrating on nature for a while, and seeing the beauty we have around us is amazing.

    My balance this week has been speed, I have been winding down between adventures. The weather in Scotland has been very kind this week, and I write this as my tea is brewing. A seat in the garden before some chores and some mountain biking with my family.

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