Ridiculously Alive     

by Karen Friedland


I am thinking about
the small spaces I inhabit
and the tiny things
I see every day—the very stones on the road.

I am thinking
that I will continue to reject
that which insults my soul—
this gets easier every year.

I am turning my mind instead
to everything that is now living—
my husband on the couch, reading the paper,
the dogs, softly snoring beside us,
the late summer crickets, with their fading serenade.

Everything, I know, dies
but this does not grieve me right now—

Because at this moment,
everything is so brilliantly,
almost ridiculously, alive.


* * * * *

"Ridiculously Alive" was first published in Vox Populi (2020) and is part of the author'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 (Cervena 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.