It All Counts as Practice

Theme
3rd Place

For Peter who has become blind

the way we maneuver around each other
you, unseeing. Me, methodical in my every move.

It is a gentle dance, this brailling through
the farmhouse, our lives. Keeping the familiar
always in place, honoring the repeated practice

that keeps us running smoothly. Dishes shelved
the same way, leftovers on a specific refrigerator
shelf. Milk always on the right, coffee front and
center. You cannot function without the coffee.

The practice you make of putting needed items
always in their places, facing the same direction
in the same order. The way you navigate: 
feet at the edge of area rugs, the stairs you count
again and again.

We have been groomed for this. The practice
of making life easier, better somehow. We practiced
parenting: steady, predictable reactions, stories shared
over and over, to embed memories for generations. 

It is all practice: rocking babies, reading to toddlers
singing even though we cannot carry a tune. The practice
of praise for hard work, good grades, and even now
for the sanctity of poems.

The practice of stepping into the river of words
of floating along, of surviving the surprise rapids
the turns and rocks, the joy at the end of the ride.

Judge’s Remarks: "I appreciate a poem that takes me to a part of the world I would otherwise not know. The connection to other life practices is an interesting insight that adds to the poem."