All the little things

by Elise Stuart

like watering the strawberries and currants,

because they are up and leafing,

or carrying the wicker basket,

full of wet clothes,

down the steps and out by the trees.

One could miss the way

the fingers squeeze together

the top of the clothespin to

attach the seam of the blue shirt

to the swaying clothesline.

One could miss the moment,

when the sprinkler is moved around,

that each small strawberry plant drinks in water,

up from its root tips.

One could miss these details of care,

one could look back over the day and say only

I washed the clothes,

I watered the garden.

One could miss all of these―

how the brown socks are

carefully laid out to dry.

I don't want to go on about it

but isn't it the small things,

the little acts of love,

that keep this

joyous, heartrending world

spinning on its axis?

* * * * *

"All the little things" is from Elise Stuart's poetry collecion Another Door Calls.

Elise Stuart moved to Silver City in 2005, and her heart opened to the desert. She found the creative current to be strong in this southwest corner of New Mexico, and she found beauty in the land and rivers and sky and in the people who live here. In 2014, when she was chosen Poet Laureate of Silver City, she envisioned young people expressing themselves through poetry so during the next three years, so she gave over a hundred workshops to youth. She continues with this work.