Not Much Became Much
Mornings were blooming darker,
the shapes of moods
no less secret,
and missing any sunset mattered.
Family came over to see
the woods, the beach, the place,
how the old guy was doing, out now
on his ever-loving own—
even stayed for some conversation.
And I, newly fond of the day-by-day,
was considering reconsidering positive
thinking: the lean air had grown colder,
the incessant wind less insistent,
and the dunes had begun to listen
like a home to write home about.
D. R. James, retired from nearly 40 years of teaching university writing, literature, and peace studies, lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan, USA. His latest of ten collections is Mobius Trip (Dos Madres Press, 2021), and his work appears internationally in many anthologies and journals.