Charles Finn’s “Simple Pleasures,” offered here in celebration of National Poetry Month, rings the deep bell of truth within us all:
Simple Pleasures
I would like to live at the pace of stones
Have a mountain’s idea of time
Spend my days in the company of shadows
Companion to inchworm, turtle, and tree.
It’s hard, wouldn’t you agree? Everything happening so fast
And knowing so little, only that life must end
Yet here we are—you, me, every last one of us—
Forever and always just getting started.
Which is why I come down to the river
Simple pleasures, that’s what it tells me
A kingfisher spiking into the water, a cottonwood leaning in.
Trout asleep in the shadows. I close my eyes
Let my mind drift downstream, breathe.
CHARLES FINN’S latest book, On a Benediction of Wind: Poems and Photographs, a pairing of his nature poetry with Barbara Michelman’s photos from the Pacific Northwest, will be published this summer. He lives in Havre, MT.
“Simple Pleasures” will be featured in the 2022 issue of Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry,” coming your way this June. Visit us at deepwildjournal.com!
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