I love this poem so much! How can you not love that?
Miracle Fair by Wisława Szymborska
Commonplace miracle:
that so many commonplace miracles happen.
An ordinary miracle:
in the dead of night
the barking of invisible dogs.
One miracle out of many:
a small, airy cloud
yet it can block a large and heavy moon.
Several miracles in one:
an alder tree reflected in the water,
and that it's backwards left to right
and that it grows there, crown down
and never reaches the bottom,
even though the water is shallow.
An everyday miracle:
winds weak to moderate
turning gusty in storms.
First among equal miracles:
cows are cows.
Second to none:
just this orchard
from just that seed.
A miracle without a cape and top hat:
scattering white doves.
A miracle, for what else could you call it:
today the sun rose at three-fourteen
and will set at eight-o-one.
A miracle, less surprising than it should be:
even though the hand has fewer than six fingers,
it still has more than four.
A miracle, just take a look around:
the world is everywhere.
An additional miracle, as everything is additional:
the unthinkable
is thinkable.
This poem really hit me in an unexpected way. You know how we walk around every day barely noticing things? Szymborska completely flips that on its head. Like that bit about the dogs barking at night - I've heard that a million times but never thought of it as anything special until now.
I love how she takes these super ordinary things and makes them feel magical without being cheesy about it. The part about the tree reflection in the water really got me thinking - it's something I've seen countless times but never really saw, if that makes sense. And "cows are cows" made me laugh out loud - it's so absurd but also kind of profound?
The way she builds it all up to that final punch about how we can even think about the unthinkable... that's just brilliant. It's like she's saying "Hey, look around - everything is kind of amazing if you just pay attention."
Makes me want to look at everything differently on my walk home today.