Mirific

Jack Bedell

(for Daniel LeBoeuf)

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
                                                            —Thomas Merton

As busy as our days can get
            with family or work or winds
                        that blow in from the Gulf 

to topple us off our foundations,
            each one hides minutes we can
                        steal for ourselves to slow it all down. 

Some days we might have to wake
before the sun climbs over dark clouds
                        along the horizon to find these moments, 

but they’re there for us, always.
            A quiet room, a book from the shelf–
                        we only have to crack the spine

and follow those words like tracks
to the banks of Bayou Teche, each line
a pin oak to lean our shoulder against

to watch the water crawl by, the heron feed,
            each page a gift of song and dreams
                        and strength we can store against 

even the longest of days. Stack
           these minutes. Find breath in them
to sing your own song when the music starts.

 Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather, Pidgeonholes, The Shore, Moist, Okay Donkey, EcoTheo, The Hopper, Terrain, and other journals. His latest collection is Against the Woods’ Dark Trunks (Mercer University Press, 2022). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.