Wonder

by Mindie Kniss

by Jan Keough

I would like to mention
that there is no preparation
for wonder.

It doesn’t appear on the pages
of all those books
you’ve read.

It doesn’t linger
on the backside of memory
with the most delicious taste.

It can’t fall out of the sky
like sun showers
to dazzle you.

It doesn’t rise like waves
full of pushing forward
with small tingles of anticipation.

Or appear from outside
like phone messages
blinking your attention.

No, it hovers,
waiting for you to be ready
to see it.

And swim in it
and absorb it
since it’s always there.

That something-joy
born of your
letting go.


Jan Keough lives in Northern Rhode Island and is part of the Origami Poems Project of RI. (www.origamipoems.com) She’s received 1st Honorable Mention from the Bay Area Poets Coalition. Her poems have appeared in New Verse News, The River Poets Journal, Providence Journal, and the RI Writer’s Circle 2008 Anthology.