NEAR PROVIDENCE 11/27/20

Yet another day,

yet another cup of tea

as the traffic dies.

I turn on the lights

as I put away the things,

and in the quiet

feel the shock thinkers

talk about. It is stunning

that it is at all.

Author: Tom D'Evelyn

Tom D'Evelyn is a private editor and writing tutor in Cranston RI and, thanks to the web, across the US and in the UK. He can be reached at tom.develyn@comcast.net. D'Evelyn has a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Before retiring he held positions at The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard University Press, Boston University and Brown University. He ran a literary agency for ten years, publishing books by Leonard Nathan and Arthur Quinn, among others. Before moving to Portland OR he was managing editor at Single Island Press, Portsmouth NH. He blogs at http://tdevelyn.com and other sites. View all posts by Tom D'Evelyn

2 thoughts on “NEAR PROVIDENCE 11/27/20”

John Looker says:

November 28, 2020 at 7:54 am

It is indeed, when we stop and listen like that. It’s a miracle I suppose.

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husmde says:

November 28, 2020 at 3:12 pm

Being at all elicits gratitude I heard a Muslim scholar on a recent ‘Beyond Belief’ podcast say. The poem takes us through the mundane details and particularities of a regular day, another day in the series of days, and this leads to the crescendo as the poet helps us suddenly experience that aha moment when worries, loneliness, boredom fall away and the gift of life comes into focus. The poet gives its readers that pang and tingle of awareness that transcends and dives below thought and text. To me this seems fitting as I read the poem as the evening beginning of the liturgical day of Advent Sunday approaches and the fine cold mist swirls outside. Whatever teh weather or the day though the poem gives us something to dwell with.

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