Recently, I discovered Samantha Reynolds’ website, Bentlily.com.

In lieu of New Year’s Resolutions, Samantha decided to choose a theme for 2011: “be present”.

To do this, she pledged to write one poem a day, and Bentlily was born.

18 months later, it’s still going. As Samantha explains on her website: “What was meant to be a one-year experiment has threaded its way into my being. I wouldn’t know how to stop now even if I wanted to.”

I’ve enjoyed reading Samantha’s poems over the last week or so, and her work has made me appreciate just how useful poetry can be for reflecting on experience, and cultivating mindfulness in our day-to-day lives.

One poem in particular touched me to the core earlier this week. It’s about life, death, and moments in between. It takes three minutes to read, and whatever else is happening today, I promise that you won’t regret making the time to experience this.

The opposite of life

 

You might say sadness
is the opposite of happiness
but I say it is sulking
that grey fit of determined misery.

It was this face I wore yesterday
sour as old meat
when our sunny beach day
was buried by an avalanche of crankiness
a denouement of three words
to make you shudder

missed
his
nap.

Still
I am the adult
I could have climbed out
sat on the heap of our wounds
surrendered
sang lullabies.

I burrowed instead
sinking into the day
picking at my hardship
like a scab.

He slept eventually
of course
and I got my swim
my glass of wine
but I couldn’t stop thinking about the young woman
I had heard about the other day
her body choking on cancer
she said to her friends

don’t miss me
just  promise me
you won’t miss
your own life.

So let this poem
fly in the jaws of the wind
land at her feet
my shame
for turning my back
on a day
she would have given anything
to taste.

What would your poem say today?