I love this poem and wish I'd written it.


"Blessings" by Ronald Wallace

from Long for This World: New and Selected Poems.
© University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted with permission.

(from Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" on National Public Radio and the Internet)


Blessings

occur.
Some days I find myself
putting my foot in
the same stream twice;
leading a horse to water
and making him drink.
I have a clue.
I can see the forest
for the trees.

All around me people
are making silk purses
out of sows' ears,
getting blood from turnips,
building Rome in a day.
There's a business
like show business.
There's something new
under the sun.

Some days misery
no longer loves company;
it puts itself out of its.
There's rest for the weary.
There's turning back.
There are guarantees.
I can be serious.
I can mean that.
You can quite
put your finger on it.