Not long ago, I suggested that we needed blessings during these times: specifically, poems of blessing. I found Jane Hirshfield’s “A Blessing for Wedding,” a wonderful poem that leaves the reader with a sense of quiet celebration, as if the cake had been passed around and everyone had eaten a slice of it.

The poet Yvonne Blomer, who lives in Victoria, took up the challenge of writing a poem of blessing. Her poem makes me think of all that I love about mornings, and since she sent it, I’ve been meditating on the way the world is so new in the morning, so ready to meet us. Here is Yvonne’s strong and lovely poem:

In Praise of Mornings

Today when the birds are a chorus, and the only chorus heard.

Today when the dog warms your lap, his eyes and ears following every flit and trace of sound.

Today when you can count the cars from rumble of tire tread and it is one, and one, and one.

Today when the cloud shelters the sun and a bright-eyed raccoon high wires across your fence, peering in at you from above.

Today the skewed piles of books, dead moths, your cooling mug on the windowsill.

Today and the world is standing still, one fly at your window.

With each breath praise the breath.

The birds are now scrapping or squawking for food. Praise the birds their hunger.

With your stillness, praise these fleet creatures, and the distance your neighbours keep, smiling from their windows.

With plum blossom and lavender soap, wash and be praised.

Let the vow of the day be human.

Let the vow of the future be light.

Let it be feathered and finned, furred and winged.

Let the pause here be a breath and the future a breathing symphony.

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Yvonne Blomer lives, writes and is kept by a dog and kid in Victoria, BC. Her most recent poetry books are As if a Raven (Palimpsest Press) and Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds (Caitlin Press). She has also written a travel memoir Sugar Ride: Cycling from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur (Palimpsest Press). See more at www.yvonneblomer.com