Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days. Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals. Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices. Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review each of your life's ten million choices. Endure moments of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you. Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart. Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope, where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all the things you did and could have done. Remember treading water in the centre of the still night sea, your toes pointing again and again down, down into the black depths.
–– Dan Albergotti, American poet and professor
Source: Austin Kleon at beginning of pandemic lockdowns in 2020.
via: Sketchbook 31, 2020, p. 70.
** If there was ever a perfect pandemic lockdown poem, this is it. The poetry of Mary Oliver also helped soothe me during the incessant lockdowns.
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