Saturday, June 25, 2016

Thinking Small

“I’m a fool for tiny things . . . ” -- when recently recalling that line in Dan’s poem, I was inspired to make my own "Witness" video 
full of gnats, mites, and, of course, my take on those "crickety-looking things" forever chirping around us  . . . .
                    
                                                                                                                                         -- Suzanne




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Witness 

Lately I’ve slowed the speeding day
by fixing my gaze
                         on the smallest
                         things:
     gnats the shape of an eyelash,   
     mites minute
     as grains of salt.
                          Tonight
it’s a crickety-looking thing.
Bent legged.  Pale-green translucent
wings.  No larger than a crumb
of morning toast, & too near
the drain where I brush
my teeth.
                I’m a fool
for tiny lives admiring
their silence.  I’ve borne them
away from daily harm
                  on paper scraps
              slid
   under wings,
           crushing them,
        at times,
with well-meant
kindness . . . before making it
             clumsily
         down the steps,
    & out
to the garden
where I try to place them
on something
green. 
            Like this one
    that seems too slight
    to survive my
                         touch,
& I can’t stand here
all night long!
             So into the kitchen,
   rinse & spit,
         then back again
for one last look.  It’s
gone
           Oh tiny breathing thing,
godspeed!
                  I really
     meant to save myself
& don’t, for certain, know
from what.  But you?
                      If you’ve
dared to hop
                     or creep
                                   or flit
     into another night, I’ll
trust my own small life
once more to dark
                                                                             & sleep.


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“Witness”  first appeared in Artful Dodge.

2 comments:

  1. Overlook; overlooked; so tiny. How our lives so often are surrendered to human “stuff”. I often feel the preciousness of these minute creatures. This Red Eft collaboration is outside of many people’s imagination and grasp of – what is life. Sensitive, touching, revealing.

    I have, at hand, a thin but firm piece of cardboard, at the ready, for creatures to ride on to a better place outside.

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  2. This is one of my very favorites of Red Eft Editions. Like Dan, I usually labor over these immediate small life issues that seem threatening at times but then, it's always my choice to stand back and question the friend or foe issue when it comes to my garden crop and the small life that lives within. I'm not always certain I've done the right thing, either. Dan just says it here it a way I can't. Love the video, too. It's a joyful collaboration you two have and a real treat to absorb upon reading and re-absorb when gardening. That's what really good poems do. They keep visiting.

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