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Day 16

I will wander to the woodland Where the laden trees await — Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nutting Song https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/paul-laurence-dunbar/nutting-song/

Pausing, in my walking, to ponder the sound of the wood and all that we should appreciate in these days of constant rambles – this quiet reduces the daily chaos to shambles - and I am now following the fox into who knows where

for Advent Of Joy

Day 15 And he sings all the day — Lucy Larcom, The Brown Thrush https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/lucy-larcom/the-brown-thrush/

Every stick, a stage

the tree, as theater

us, as audience

for Advent Of Joy

Merely a dusting, with only the skittering tracks of night creatures

for Algot

Day 14 And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? – Kahlil Gibran, On Joy and Sorrow https://poets.org/poem/joy-and-sorrow

Its lonesome song – merely breath - made hollow by the work of hands on wood

And if I could, I'd catch that note - I'd let it float into the air of a constellation sky

for Advent Of Joy

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