Compose Rudimentary Praise Songs Daily

by Karen Friedland


To the wind,
to the ever-changing weather,
to the birds that wake you,
to the city that bears you,
to the strange times you’ve survived.

To your particular allotment of years—
your decades, your century—
and the music, words and famous people
that lodged there.

To the odd assortment of friends and neighbors
whose paths you’ve haphazardly crossed
in the places where you landed,
as if pre-ordained.

But nothing is pre-ordained—
it’s all just happenstance magic.


* * * * *

" Compose Rudimentary Praise Songs Daily" is part of the Karen Friedland's chapbook Tales from the Teacup Palace (Červená Barva Press, 2020).

A nonprofit grant writer by day, Karen Friedland’s poems have been published in The Lily Poetry Review, Constellations, Nixes Mate Review, Writing in a Women’s Voice, Vox Populi and others. One of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and another was displayed for a year in Boston’s City Hall. Her two books of poems are Tales from the Teacup Palace (Červená Barva Press) and Places That Are Gone (Nixes Mate Books). She lives in a quiet neighborhood of Boston with her husband, two dogs, cat, and altogether too many house plants.