It's Still Life

I. A Clean Oven

Thankful that the oven is clean again. My shoulder, however, would like it noted that we are not to leave quite so long between cleanings next time.

II. Those Who Return

For those who are gone, but return on a wisp of memory, I am thankful. Some absences still know the way home.

III. Look Up

Thankful for the moments when I remember to lift my eyes. I spend so much time watching the ground, measuring where I step and how I step, that I can forget the trees have been waiting above me all along.

IV. Wabi-Sabi

Thankful for wabi-sabi: impermanence, imperfection, the natural turning of growth into decay. There is beauty in what is becoming, and beauty too in what is letting go.

V. Annoyingly Consistent

Thankful that November has brought the Writer’s Digest Poem-a-Day Chapbook Challenge around again. In eighteen years I’ve been a finalist several times, including last year, but never actually won the thing. Apparently persistence is also a form of creative practice, so I am thankful for being annoyingly consistent. Here’s Day 4.

VI. Everything Ends with a Mouse

Thankful for new ideas springing off old ones. An old woman. A French mouse who considers himself an emotional thesis. Somewhere along the way, Zeptoverse gives way to nonsense, and somehow everything ends with a mouse. Not every week. Just often enough to remind me how much fun there is in writing silly stuff. Here’s the first one.

VII. The Apostle Trees

Thankful for the fiery autumn colours of the Apostle Trees along the road behind our house, leading toward the little local church. For a few brief weeks each year, they seem to process there dressed in gold.

VIII. Open Doors

Thankful for an online course that has genuinely caught my interest, and for the fact that learning can now arrive wherever curiosity happens to be. What a gift, that a door to knowledge can stand open for anyone willing to walk through it.

IX. Stories That Keep Moving

Thankful to Denise for hosting Six Sentence Stories, where Dead Men Don’t Drown is still unravelling its mystery, while The Heist has come to rest with The Herbier heading toward Provence. And thankful, too, for Brigid and Felreil, who may yet have another story waiting for them next year. Some characters know when to leave the room, but not necessarily when to leave my heart.

X. Prepared for Disappointment

Thankful that we bought Halloween candy we actually like. Only two trick-or-treaters came to the door, which means our planning has been rewarded with leftovers.