Another Jane Kenyon poem ...

Someone I like has said more than once that she usually doesn't enjoy reading poetry. And then, on May 23, I observed Jane Kenyon's birthday by using her poem "Let Evening Come" in a post. Later that someone who'd said she usually didn't enjoy poetry said she had really liked "Let Evening Come". I really liked it that she really liked it. This got me to thinking how beautiful but also how accessible .. how user friendly .. Jane Kenyon's poems are, and how this achievement of simplicity is an art in itself, and Kenyon was especially adept at it. And so here's another Kenyon poem, typed out for Lisa.(I think this poem has a touch of Anne Sexton to it, but I can't quite pick it out without going back to Sexton's poems; I can't spare the time to do that; otherwise I would.)




               OTHERWISE


               I got out of bed
               on two strong legs.
               It might have been
               otherwise. I ate
               cereal, 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 silver
               candlesticks. 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.