our happiness by Eileen Myles
1.
Breakfast with K., and we are the only two people here. A moment I can stay in for awhile. It comes to you out of the blue, perhaps just like this, while in the middle of a conversation with a friend you haven’t seen in months, how lucky you are to be here. And not just here, but here, arriving at this point with your eyes wide open. The sureness that you are not that alone—and even if you are, some day in the future, some day sooner than you think, you have all of this.
2.
I must’ve done something good, I once wrote to R.
3.
My self, now, thinking, echoing Mary Oliver: You do not have to be good.
4.
Perhaps we just need to be.
our happiness
Eileen Myleswas when the
lights were
outthe whole city
in darkness& we drove north
to our friend’s
yellow apt.
where she had
power & we
could worklater we stayed
in the darkened
apt. you sick
in bed & me
writing ambitiously
by candle light
in thin blue
booksyour neighbor had
a generator &
after a while
we had a little
bit of lightI walked the
dog & you
were still
a little bit
sickwe sat on a stoop
one day in the
late afternoon
we had very little
money. enough for
a strong cappuccino
which we shared
sitting there &
suddenly the
city was lit.
—
(from Poets.org)
H
‘It comes to you out of the blue, perhaps just like this, while in the middle of a conversation with a friend you haven’t seen in months, how lucky you are to be here. And not just here, but here, arriving at this point with your eyes wide open. The sureness that you are not that alone—and even if you are, some day in the future, some day sooner than you think, you have all of this.’
Thank you – I really needed to read this today. 🙂
JB
“It comes to you out of the blue…
…how lucky you are to be here. And not just here, but here, arriving at this point with your eyes wide open. The sureness that you are not that alone—and even if you are, some day in the future, some day sooner than you think, you have all of this.”
From the moment I started to read this, to just now, when I finished: a moment in time for sure, but just long enough for an ocean of emotions to wash over me, then back out to fill the sea. With damp sand beneath me, I lay under the spell of divine release.