Harboring Happiness - Day 6
search and rescue
Today in harboring happiness, I have lost it. I think of brevity and how good things won’t ever last as long as we hope. With my friends who can sense my sadness and try to drown it with slobbery kisses, we continue our search and rescue in the field where stories begin and never end.
The hummingbird who flaunts his pink necklace says happiness was last spotted the night before as if a spirit passing only briefly over the moon. The mourning doves coo a song about how they glimpsed it that dawn, glistening across the rooftops. A mockingbird perched sidelong on the youthful agave bloom thinks it is hidden somewhere within the palo verde blossoms.
Yet, the free-spirited jack rabbit is clever and has learned that happiness doesn’t always soar in out of reach places. “I’ll show you,” he offers and bolts from one bush to another. There, a solitary quail emerges, puttering over the wild, untrimmed grass. I entreat my eager friends to stay calm. Just there before us, happiness is embodied.
In harboring happiness, we must occasionally let it wander.
About the Creator
Sam Eliza Green
Wayward soul, who finds belonging in the eerie and bittersweet. Poetry, short stories, and epics. Stay a while if you're struggling to feel understood. There's a place for you here.
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A Flower Song
Apparently the Aztecs, Toltecs, Chichimecs and other Mexica were crazy about poetry. Despite the book-burning, slaughter, and epidemics that characterized the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the empires of Mexico, some hundreds of poems from the height of their tradition come down to us in Classical Nahuatl, preserved by Nahua and Spanish scholars of the 16th century. One of the most famous poets, Nezahualcoyotl, was a sage-king who opposed the cult of human sacrifice associated with Tezcatlipoca, God of the Smoking Mirror, and favored Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. Flowers and feathers were the favorite offering of the Plumed Serpent. Moreover, flowers and feathers are a metaphor for poetry. Individual words, scattered petals, the down of tropical birds. The temples of blood sacrifice could be transformed into temples of flower and song. A sublimated offering to the Heart of Earth and the Heart of Sky encapsulated in the Classical Nahuatl kenning for poetry: in xōchitl in cuīcatl, meaning, "the flower and the song." The following poem is part of a longer work, and is in a state of flux, so take the waters as they flow:
By Rob Angeli3 days ago in Poets
Comments (5)
Perhaps we make ourselves a harbour for happiness, yes, but we can't expect it to stay in harbour all of the time.
Eloquent truly!
Yes, sometimes the journey is not a smooth, straight road. Sending you lots of love and hugs ❤️
This is where ArT and writing merge. This is a masterpiece. Truly.
Gosh this is so deep! I am really loving your poems! The pink necklace - we have Anna’s Hummingbirds which is a perfect description! 😍😍