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A Gift in the Moment

Writer's picture: Hilda Van NettenHilda Van Netten

I feel like I have been given a gift. A gift on a rainy late December day, following a night where sleep did not come for Ted, following 3 previous nights with little sleep for him. RLS is a bitch.


So, we slow down.


He naps in the day.


I paint and am given gifts.


Yesterday, it was the gift of a new-to-me poet: Clint Smith. I've listened to Krista Tippet's interview twice in the past two days......which is fine, because these berries are taking a long time to figure out.





NO MORE ELEGIES TODAY


Today I will

write a poem

about a little girl jumping rope.

It will not be a metaphor for dodging bullets.

It will not be an allegory

for skipping past despair.

But rather about the

back & forth bob of her head

as she waits for the right moment to insert herself

into the blinking flashes of bound hemp.

But rather about her friends

on either end of the rope who turn

their wrists into small

flashing windmills cultivating

an energy of their own.

But rather about the way

the beads in her hair bounce

against the back of her neck.

But rather the way her feet

barely touch the ground,

how the rope skipping across

the concrete sounds

like the entire world is giving

her a round of applause.


Clint Smith

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2 Comments


rheallyemuzing
Dec 28, 2023

Oh Hilda, sorry about your & Ted's lack of sleep, I can identify lol. This picture is going to be spectacular. The colors are amazing. Never thought I would want to eat out of the compost pail!

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Hilda Van Netten
Hilda Van Netten
Dec 28, 2023
Replying to

Thanks, Russet.

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HV

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