in celebration of surviving by Chuck Miller

Society6

For some of my friends out there, I'm holding you close to my heart and wishing you some sense of light this winter.

in celebration of surviving
by Chuck Miller

when senselessness has pounded you around on the ropes
and you're getting too old to hold out for the future
no work and running out of money,
and then you make a try after something that you know you
    won't get
and this long shot comes through on the stretch
in a photo finish of your heart's trepidation
then for a while
even when the chill factor of these prairie winters puts it at
    fifty below
you're warm and have that old feeling
of being a comer, though belated
in the crazy game of life

standing in the winter night
emptying the garbage and looking at the stars
you realize that although the odds are fantastically against you
when that single January shooting star
flung its wad in the maw of night
it was yours
and though the years are edged with crime and squalor
that second wind, or twenty-third
is coming strong
and for a time
perhaps a very short time
one lives as though in a golden envelope of light


Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing this, Rooth. <3

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  2. What a lovely poem . . . sigh.

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  3. I love it! You always share the best stuff!

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  4. This poem is perfect for this time of year. :)

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  5. oh ruth, this is so beautiful and really speaks to me right now. there is such an expanse of emotions in this poem.

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  6. I'm glad I'm not the only one who stops to look at the stars while emptying the garbage--especially during the winter. Actually, I knew I wasn't, that I couldn't be. A clear night sky in the winter is too peaceful and amazing. Just the walk from the car to the house after work is uplifting. In that moment, we can do anything. Even if the anything we need to do is to just hold on for one more day.

    Thanks for sharing this!

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  7. It's all about that last stanza. Gorgeous.

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  8. Yes, this.
    We all need that dash of hope :)

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