So Much Happiness
It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against,
a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.
But happiness floats.
It doesn’t need you to hold it down.
It doesn’t need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of dust and noise
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibilities
of coffee cake and ripe peaches,
and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records…
Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.
– Naomi Shihab Nye
I love this poet – I have several of her collections, but I don’t think I’ve ever read this one before.
Reading it made me realize something though – I’ve not felt happy like this in a long, long time. I hope I can do something about that soon.
Oh Becca. I think all we can do is make the conditions right, like tending a garden, and then hope that elusive butterfly graces us with her presence.
I think a good start is a list of experiences that bring peace or contentment or silly guffaws…and then start doing them. It’s like that first hoeing of the hard-packed winter dirt, pretty soon those bright green shoots will have to appear.
Such a whimsical poem. Happiness does indeed float…. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to comment Maria. I’m glad you liked the poem too. ‘Floating happiness’ makes me think of that drifting plastic bag in the opening scene of American Beauty, such graceful & ephemeral beauty – just like happiness.
Lovely, the whole feeling of happiness warms your heart.
The world can use lots of it, and gosh, it feels sooo good when
you just feel it. thanks for the reminder Colleen; It is truly that simple!
Hey Laurie, Isn’t happiness so wonderfully described. Just discovered this poet. Love her!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your happiness, Colleen!
Hey Gwen, isn’t it a beauty of a poem? Love the imagery. Glad you liked it too.