it's so easy

it’s so easy to lose it 
without noticing, your attention 
driven to inattention by jobs and bills 
parents and children

the heat slowly rising
-- just another frog in the pan
then suddenly -- you’re old 

you notice the stars
have grown dim, the days
seem shorter, damp and cold
and all of your poems 

now speak of loss

until one morning 
you wake before dawn to the sound 
of birds singing in the darkness 
and after all this time 

right there it is

you almost don’t recognize it 
yet from a deeper place 
you do what you once might have done 

and rise 

to walk barefoot over the wet grass
to feel the cool breeze on your still-warm skin
to lift your weary eyes to the first soft colors 
    of dawn

and you know, once again 
what you certainly always have known 

that here 
   rises the luminous face of the ecstatic child

that here rises joy 

that here, after so very long 
    rises once again 
    the all-redeeming grace of wonder
    
and for one more glorious, completely ordinary day

you are blessed