Another Poem in the Series about Fall 2005

October 7, 2005
Picked up by my mother from work last night and taken out to dinner

To a new restaurant in soma
excellent food ordered in a grazing way
where we shared everything
tempura fried green beans and duck liver terrine
fig pizza and pea ravioli
yummy chocolate cake and a glass of rosé
There was also a tiny vase of red flowers on the table
and a candle that shone through my water glass

So
let’s be honest
clearly I don’t just enumerate any old minutia each day
but rather the beauties of
and my pleasure in
certain among myriad quotidian things
Not so much recording
though I could
the mundane details of the daily round
or the inevitable little domestic crises
Because of course what I’m really looking for is
comfort
the secret beauty inside of things
picked from the day like the best fruit
that’s always there if I just slow the hell down and
notice
that proves beyond doubt that life is immeasurably
rich
(yes even when its full of change and challenge)
that forces the issue of being smack dab in the proverbial moment
and nowhere else

But in fact I do want to notice it all

the frisson of revulsion at the sight of the curdled yogurt
the comfort of snuggling into Bill’s terrycloth robe

the smells of trash and low tide and smoke and tar in the street
wet pavement and coffee and girls’ perfume


image source is here