a hundred small wonders

Recently, I was privileged to serve as managing editor for an anthology of poetry: The Larger Geometry:  poems for peace. In the call for submissions, we asked for poetry that would “uplift, encourage and inspire,” for poems that were heart warming, fun, funny, and so on.

Myself and two other editors read more than six hundred submissions. Restored by Cate Terwilliger was one of the submissions that made it to the final round but then we found out that Cate had previously published her poem on her blog. Bummer! We could only accept previously unpublished work. But…I simply loved this poem, so I asked Cate if I could re-publish it here (note: formidableWoman does not ordinarily publish previously published work, so this is a rare exception).

Restored is story. It is compassion personified:

Spider/…I/…lay you there gently, lifted/and lay you again,/…blew softly/on your corpse with sorry breath

It is an ode to “a hundred small wonders,” to the micro-cosmic universes that teem and thrive around us, unnoticed. It is theological inquiry:

Was there a white light?/ Did you see them?

It is social commentary:

were they half/ as glad, half as glad as I –/ to feel one needless harm undone,

This poem made me laugh and cry out loud. I hope it does the same for you. Read Restored in its entirety here:

Cate Terwilliger is a runner and recovering journalist who shares a homestead with beautiful hens and extraordinary cats in the Colorado Rockies.  She frequently wonders what life is all about and involuntarily practices the sacred art of not knowing. Find more of her work on her blog here.

images: all are used with permission of the artist via Creative Commons unless otherwise noted. Some rights reserved.