I Have Tears In My Eyes

The coolest thing happened this morning when I woke-up early, tip-toed downstairs, and did what I always do when I'm the first one up - enjoyed a cup of coffee in my favorite cup...

...while looking out at the mountain.

(In case that was confusing, no, I haven't mentioned the *cool* part yet.)

The cool part of this story - it's actually amazing, if you ask me - is that as I sat in the silence of a pre-dawn kitchen, admiring the mountain, I thought about a poem that I've thought of often through-out my life. It's a poem that I read about 30 years ago, as a young girl, in the juvenile poetry section of some children's magazine. I remember reading all these poems written by kids like me, and then there was one poem -- one incredibly beautiful poem, signed by a nine year old girl that far surpassed all of them. I remember being in awe of this girl's ability. She was about my age and had the ability to write poetry like an adult.

I tore out the poem and kept if for years, rereading it often and thinking about the nine year old girl who could write poetry like a pro. The page floated around through my childhood, making it's way from a pin board, to a desk drawer and eventually into a keepsake box. (It might even still exist somewhere deep in our basement.)

Through the years, I have forgot almost all of the words to the once-memorized poem, all but the last line:

And I'm the one who woke the sun

And kissed the stars goodnight.

I thought about the poem again this morning, while taking my coffee in front of the mountain, kissed by the rising sun. As I listed to the first clucks coming from chicken coop, I thought - what if...what if I could find that poem on the internet?

And just like that it was there in front of me. A search of the last sentence produced the entire poem of a woman who was actually not a 9 year old in 1981, but an older woman. No wonder the poem struck me as so amazing - it was written by a professional poet! And if my memory is serving me correctly it was either misprinted as the work of a young child or it was a case of undetected plagiarism. Either way, I am so excited to have it back in my life and I'm fascinated by how much its words resonated with me at a time long before I knew I loved gardens or farms. I only wish the poet was still alive so I could share with her my story and let her know how much her poem meant to my childhood.

 

Very Early
by Karla Kuskin

When I wake in the early mist

The sun has hardly shown

And everything is still asleep

And I’m awake alone.

The stars are faint and flickering.

The sun is new and shy.

And all the world sleeps quietly

Except the sun and I.

And then the noises start,

The whirrs and huffs and hums,

The birds peep out to find a worm.

The mice squeak out for crumbs,

The calf moos out to find the cow,

And taste the morning air

And everything is wide awake

And running everywhere.

The dew has dried,

The fields are warm,

The day is loud and bright,

And I’m the one who woke the sun

And kissed the stars goodnight.

 

This day last year: "Japanesque" at The Legion of Honor

Comments

[BG Springfield]

LOVE this. What a sweet poem.

[Suburban Homestead]

I've re-read it five times already - and I cry every time!

[lynn]

Thank you. Great Story!