NaPoMo QOTD Because Some Things Aren't Extraordinary. They're Just Nice, And That's Good Enough.

"When she went into the gazebo with her black pen and yellow pad
to coax an inquisitive soul...
and the notebook, turned to a new page,...
I wrote: happiness! it is December, very cold"
 - Happiness by Robert Hass* (PoLau '95-'97)

I love this poem because this is how I want to feel about every single day. Not so much the very cold part, but the rest of the poem. It isn't spectacular in some earth shattering way; it's just nice. And honestly, common life is pretty extraordinary and wonderful.

Hass said that "poets have a moral responsibility to make and refresh...images of common life." I think that's incredibly accurate. Poetry has the ability to do this is a way that no other artistic medium can. A pretty sunset, a kid's ice cream smudged face, a house on fire, a hooker. Everything has something beautiful about it that poets need to point out to everyone else because not everyone sees it right away.

*From The Poets Laureate Anthology, published by W.W. Norton in association with the Library of Congress. Poem copyright Robert Hass.