I don’t want to be a spice store. I don’t want to carry handcrafted Marseille soap, or tsampa and yak butter, or nine thousand varieties of wine. Half the shops here don’t open till noon and even the bookstore’s brined in charm. I want to be the one store that’s open all night and has nothing but necessities. Something to get a fire going and something to put one out. A place where things stay frozen and a place where they are sweet. I want to hold within myself the possibility of plugging one’s ears and easing one’s eyes; superglue for ruptures that are, one would have thought, irreparable, a whole bevy of non-toxic solutions for everyday disasters. I want to wait brightly lit and with the patience I never had as a child for my father to find me open on Christmas morning in his last-ditch, lone-wolf drive for gifts. “Light of the World” penlight, bobblehead compass, fuzzy dice. I want to hum just a little with my own emptiness at 4 a.m. To have little bells above my door. To have a door.

Today’s poem for #NationalPoetryMonth
#IDon’tWanttoBeaSpiceStore by #ChristianWiman
(originally in The New Yorker, also a great Poetry Podcast interview at Apple)
#NaPoMo #poetry

“I want to hold within myself the possibility…”

In this comical poem, Wiman explores the multiplicity of the divine in our lives; all the ways it masquerades—and perhaps—genuinely appears. (2/2)

#Poetry #PoetryCommunity #FaithAndDoubt
#ChristianWiman #SpiritualPoetry

In this comical poem, Wiman explores the multiplicity of the divine in our lives; all the ways it masquerades—and perhaps—genuinely appears.

#Poetry
#ContemporaryPoetry
#ChristianWiman
#FaithAndDoubt
#SpiritualInquiry
#EngagingTheSenses
#PoetryCommunity
#LiteraryPoetry
#Poems

(1/2)

The Work of the Poet An acclaimed American poet gives a glimpse into the workday of a literary artist.

Joy Clarkson: "What does a day of work look like when you are writing poetry?"

#ChristianWiman: "Chaos. I move around, mutter, curse, stare at the sky for an hour, occasionally stop all this to hastily scribble a flurry of words..."
www.plough.com/en/topics/cu...