I probably read some poetry every day.
And some days, I read a lot of poetry.
I find that poetry brings me comfort . . . even when (or maybe especially when) the world feels bleak and not terribly welcoming. Over the last few weeks, I have found myself turning to my favorite poets for comfort and for welcome and for respite.
Today, I bring you a poem from Maggie Smith (the poet, not the now-deceased Dame). You may be familiar with Maggie’s poem Good Bones, which went viral after the 2016 election. The poem I’m sharing today is a little bit, well . . . darker. A little bit less (immediately) hopeful. But also a good reminder that beginnings . . . are often dark.
How Dark the Beginning
Maggie SmithAll we ever talk of is light —
let there be light, there was light then,good light — but what I consider
dawn is darker than all that.So many hours between the day
receding and what we recognizeas morning, the sun cresting
like a wave that won’t breakover us — as if light were protective,
as if no hearts were flayed,no bodies broken on a day
like today. In any film,the sunrise tells us everything
will be all right. Danger wouldn’tdare show up now, dragging
its shadow across the screen.We talk so much of light, please
let me speak on behalfof the good dark. Let us
talk more of how darkthe beginning of a day is.
Today’s poem comes from Maggie Smith’s collection Goldenrod: Poems, published in 2021 by One Signal Publishers. You can read more about Maggie Smith and her work here, on her website.
Be gentle with yourselves. And don’t be afraid of the good dark.
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You can find A Gathering of Poetry every month . . . on the third Thursday.
Share some.
Read some.
Gather up some poetry!
(Bonny is hosting a special link-up for A Gathering of Poetry. Be sure to check it out!)
Dear Maggie knows how to take the dark and make it good! Thank you for sharing this today… it is exactly the reminder I need when despair overwhelms. XO
“The good dark” – I like that!
Good poem. One can only hope…..
this one is going in my journal today – thank you! (did you watch Sharon McMahon’s owl seminar last night? totally fascinating … those creatures do their best work in the dark!)
I haven’t read any of Maggie Smith’s poetry for a long time, but this is just perfect for our current dark times. That’s part of the magic of poetry; it feels like she could have written this recently as it’s so appropriate. I think the poems that you and Kat have chosen today have worked together to make me take a deep breath and think, “Yes, I can go on.” Thank you for sharing!
This provided a good perspective shift for me. We often think of darkness as being a bad, scary thing, but there is a good side to it, as this poem so beautifully illustrates. Thank you for sharing it today!
There is a lot that can be learned and experienced in the good dark before the dawn.
I like that concept of the good dark. I’ll be thinking about that a lot in the days to come, I suspect.