Gathering

This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive.—Alice Waters

The trudging through a year

of a destructive virus

and a week living through

a historic cold weather

event, the separation

from illness and ice,

the layered-effect straining

us past an understanding

of what the world is becoming, 

the enduring of such storms 

makes me hunger for sun 

and a world free of distance 

restrictions; as we consider 

the blessings we all take 

for granted, the everyday 

casual when life moves 

in ways we find normal, 

whatever normal means, 

I pray we soon find ourselves 

with some wide-open

moments in which to breathe,

to gather and share a bounty

of all that grows on this good

earth, to stand under heaven

and marvel as we witness

a night full of stars, hold

hands, kiss cheeks, give hugs

without any worry of a closeness

we all so rightly desire.

—C.L. Fisher, February 2021  

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