Up on the Hill in Boulder across 13th from Buchanan’s Coffee Pub is a small storefront papered over with poetry and a sign that promises “Innisfree Poetry Bookstore and Café, opening soon.” The website also mentions an opening in early November, but previous signs have promised October—I am hoping for the best since I think the world has far too few Poetry Bookstore/Café combinations. A few days ago this poem was posted in the window in large letters:
Otherwise
I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I atecereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silvercandlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.
Some might say this poem is bleak or ominous – but I choose to see it more in terms of a reminder to be grateful and joyous about the present. The poem represents a feeling that haunts me, but at the same time is the key that will set me free, because the choice is always either fear of losing all you hold dear or love and gratitude for all you have right now. Every morning I wake up and choose one way or the other--and that choice makes a big difference in my frame of mind for the day.
This is an idea that I didn’t think about in my 20s that I can remember, and also an idea that may be foreign to many 20-somethings today. But after much loss and challenge in my life, this idea is now at the forefront of my mind. The most important point is that this is a choice, each moment of each day.
