dogtrax

Day 13 I abandon myself to joy — Clarissa Scott Delaney, Joy https://poets.org/poem/joy-0

Something of a release in the way you smile, a quiet reminder - the look in your eyes - remembering joy

for Advent Of Joy

Day 12 “trying to think and all I come up with is a texture without ideas” — Brian Teare, When we are on the right track we are rewarded with joy https://poets.org/poem/when-we-are-right-track-we-are-rewarded-joy

As if I might rub to the surface another poem on the page, or another song, with lyrics, lost

Some days, I feel abandoned by the muse

Other days, she resides so deep in me, it's as if we're in constant conversation; art, without words

for Advent of Joy

Day 11 “he always paints another” – Abbie Kiefer, On “The Joy of Painting,” at 3 A.M., Bob Ross Promises Anyone Can Do This https://poets.org/poem/joy-painting-3-am-bob-ross-promises-anyone-can-do

Ink spots on fingertips and a bit of green paint on the lips from lost thoughts caught up in a moment of wonder, staring at an empty canvas

for Advent Of Joy

Day 10 “Whose sun falls across these pages” — Stephen Kuusisto, Dark Joys https://poets.org/poem/dark-joys

Shadows in dispersion across black font letters building out songs – short poems, too - all scratched against the seam of white paper, the edge of my hand knotted with smudged graphite from leaning too far into text — maybe I am both absence and the sun

for Advent Of Joy

Day 9 “Dark was the night save for the snow’s weird light” — Claude McKay, “Morning Joy” https://poets.org/poem/morning-joy

Yet upon the horizon - Mercury, with its glimmer of possibilities, and Jupiter, not far to follow; Sometimes, the dark unveils what would otherwise remain hidden

inspired by https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Wj3kZufH72IdE7QZbN9WJZU4xWNxhVzM-vik2g1QQoM/present#slide=id.p

Day 8 “I gazed—and gazed—but little thought” — William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45521/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud

These Forget-Me-Nots remind me of the summer we began dancing in the field of small blue flowers to a music in our mind – you humming a melody as I sang a wordless song, trailing just behind

Remnants of a moon; night dust and refracted light slumbering on glass

for Algot

Dec 7 Advent of Joy

“so joy.us” — Vladimir Lucien, uses of the erotic https://poets.org/poem/uses-erotic

silence/spoken poets woven by words your words my words our words us:

Breathe

Dec 6 Advent of Joy

“Ah, we should have a land of joy” – Langston Hughes, Our Land https://poets.org/poem/our-land

So we should, but it's understood how far off we are from such a noble goal, and so we find ourselves at home, tending joy within four walls, the place where we can still make love happen

Dec 1 “Joy is not made to be a crumb” — Mary Oliver, Don't Hesitate https://www.best-poems.net/mary-oliver/don-t-hesitate.html

Cake maybe is more like it – baked then sliced into sections, every question a forkful for another quiet reason to close your eyes - let's begin again to breathe in the sweet of joy

Dec 2 “He who binds to himself a joy” — William Blake, Eternity https://poets.org/poem/eternity

Frayed strings with broken lines, a poem sometimes can feel like its always on the verge of falling apart, and then, not

Dec 3 “... the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust, and knows not a word” — Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali 58

Swept up into sand, little particles rushing in; you gasp you breathe you gasp to know the words, only to swallow what is best left misunderstood

Dec 4 “... luminous joy: it simply spins” — Andrew Hudgins, Blur https://poets.org/poem/blur

Weaver, remember me when the wheel's no longer broken, my thoughts now spoken in a whisper

Dec 5 “Joy lives behind people's eyes” — Hilda Conkling, Joy

Who'd wear glasses on days like these when what we need most is to gaze deep into each other's eyes, languishing in the moment, if only for a minute

Thanks to Deanna for her Advent of Joy poetic calendar https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Wj3kZufH72IdE7QZbN9WJZU4xWNxhVzM-vik2g1QQoM/present#slide=id.p