The Imperative Tense

This world still belongs to you

Day 19 of 30 Days of Poetry, Autumn 2024

Keep walking.
Keep looking
and taking a pic.
Keep collecting beautiful things.
Keep breathing through your nose.
Keep texting to others,
day or night, saying i love you.
Keep hugging and kissing
any way you can.
Keep reading books and 
making handwritten lists 
of those you love and who loves you,
and birds, and flowers, and shrubs.
Keep watercolors ready
out on the counter.
Keep moving around
and stretch.
Keep stroking and brushing 
the pets (yours and others'),
and talking to the neighbor kids.
Keep swinging on swings.
Keep dropping off into naps.
Keep the sink and the dishes clean.
Keep making plans, 
then show up
to dance, to look at art, 
to jump on a bed, eat pizza and fart.
Keep willing and upright and ready.
Keep singing right out loud --
in showers and garages
and airports, in streets
on bluffs and also in bars. 
Keep leaving the house even though
you don't want to
to get milk, 
to hear music, 
to heal.
Remember to take 
a good look around
at the wind in the trees
and the roots reaching down:
this world still belongs to you. 

Today’s word was “bluff” given to me by my artist friend, Jeff Tamblyn.

I hope you can set yourself for inspiration, and that you stay connected and creative, come what may.