Inspiration

Samantha Little, 2013

 

I woke alive and happy.

I don’t recall why, or whether there had ever been a reason,

But the fresh expectancy persisted

Through a breakfast of dry toast and weak tea,

And a drab heap of ironing.

 

I hummed a waltz as I dragged

The spluttering iron over wrinkled cloth,

And I watched the avocado leaves

Scatter the sunshine on the bare wall.

I collect coins for a Renoir print,

But now I rejoice in the unfettered adornment

Of light and shadow, shadow and light,

Dancing on my wall.

 

“I woke up very happy this morning. I don’t remember why or whether I ever knew, but the attitude of fresh expectancy persisted, sustained, perhaps, by Amy Lowell’s poetry. I have been transcribing my favorites from Pictures of the Floating World[...] Will this serenity, I wonder, conquer the heap of ironing and buttons to be sewn?… It did; it rested on all my day like a benediction.”—from a journal entry dated August 9, 2011