Gift
The following poem is by Czeslaw Milosz, a Lithuanian born Polish poet, prose writer and translator who was born in 1911 and died in 2004. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980.
Gift
A day so happy.
Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
This poem, to my ears and heart, is very much like the hummingbird it describes in its third line: delicate, balanced, magical, and as light as a summer breeze. It’s like the foam on my cappuccino, a dab of whipped cream crowning a perfect strawberry, a father lightly kissing his five-year-old’s cheek at the playground.
Listen to the poem again. In just nine lines there is such an opening up to life, such joy in the simple pleasures that are often missed. The fog lifts. The work in the garden feels good and the hummingbirds stop by.
This peaceful, joyful landscape brings the poet to simple, profound revelation:
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
The seeds of grasping and envy will not grow today and all thoughts of revenge have been laid to rest. How often do you yearn for just such a state of mind? In this condition, it is possible to accept even yourself at your worst (To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me).
This poem creates and exists in a state of grace. What better than to realize that you feel no pain, and what more is there than straightening up and seeing the blue sea and sails? Life’s magic is all around us, beckoning to our senses.
Read the poem one more time.
Here is a writing prompt, a contemplation prompt. Limit yourself to ten lines and write a poem about your inner joy. Write it several times. As much as you can, switch off your analytical being and open your heart.