A visit from The Healing Muse: 'This Moment and the Next'

Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Annie Przypyszny is a student at American University and the assistant poetry editor at the Adirondack Review. She sent us an exuberant poem that celebrates the return to health, those first moments of felt healing. Here is "This Moment and the Next."

It's raining

but the clouds, mild as cows,

welcome the glow of the sun.

The trees are glossy, and the puddles dimple

with full,

healthy drops.

Today I discovered

I'm in love with my breath, and my blood,

and my brain.

I never want the world to stop spinning.

Satisfaction

settles into this house,

this body. I move

with the eagerness

of something beautiful,

an iridescent fish,

or something very young,

a kitten. I look

in the mirror and my eyes

are gems of luck. I open

the window and say

to every wonderful thing:

Don't kill me!

I'm not done

with playing,

and speaking,

and thanking,

and making good guesses,

and thinking,

and hoping,

and waiting

for the next moment,

the next nourishing and vital moment,

which could be much like today's moment,

which I live with ease,

my cupped palms filling

with a lambent elixir of rain

and sun. I sip,

and it tastes as pure

as a kind-hearted lie,

a lie that says

you will never be punished for this.