8/30, Things I Didn’t Know I Loved Poem

Our Host

Barb Edler has taught English for the last forty years in Iowa, the last thirty in Keokuk where she encouraged students to find their own voice while taking risks, coaching speech participants, and supporting NHD competitors.  Although retiring from teaching at Keokuk in 2020, she remains active instructing college composition courses. Barb enjoys watching the Mississippi roll by, reading, writing, playing cards, watching birds, and appreciating the simple things in life. 

Inspiration: Things I Didn’t Know I Loved

Throughout our lives, we all experience change. Some are more significant than others such as the pandemic or a personal loss or tragedy. Some changes occur more gradually or happen because we choose to take a new direction in life. Whatever the change may be, these personal alterations can impact one’s perspective too. Perhaps we begin to appreciate things differently, too.  

Today’s mentor poem is by Jamila Woods, a Chicago poet and songwriter. Her poem “Day 29 (2020)” was inspired by Nazim Hikmet’s poem, “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved,” which can be found here: https://poets.org/poem/things-i-didnt-know-i-loved

Jamila Woods’ audio recording and poem can be located at the following link: https://poets.org/poem/day-29-2020

Day 29 (2020) 

Jamila Woods

after Nazim Hikmet

it’s April 13th 2020, my mother’s 60th birthday
and i’m sitting on the couch from my old apartment
in my new apartment, and Pidgeon’s wind chimes are loud
outside my window

i never knew i liked wind chimes

i think Mom used to have some outside her office
she had tabletop fountains and hunks of amethyst
crystals the size of my face

i used to hate how she made us meditate
learn reiki on the weekends
now i’m calling her every other day
for the new old remedy

i hate how much i cared about being cool
when i was younger, carrying mom’s tupperware
in brown paper bags wishing for a lunchable
something disposable with a subtler scent

now i am ecstatic to see tupperware
stacked in my fridge, the luxury
of leftovers instead of chopping
another onion

i used to lie in bed on Sunday evenings wishing
for a whole week of weekends
now i forget what day it is
and still feel i’m running out of time

i never knew i hated washing my hands this much
i sing “Love On Top” while scrubbing
to make sure i hit twenty seconds

my sister hears me singing and asks
if i am happy. no, i say
i’m just counting

Process

“Things I Didn’t Know I Loved” is the theme I want to explore today. Consider the challenges you’ve overcome, the celebrations you can rejoice, the way you may miss something that you never realized you missed. Woods and Hikmet’s poems focus on specific visual details that are brilliant and emotional. Consider jotting down the things you see today and examine the way they connect you to things you may miss or value. Of course, feel free to write about anything that you wish to share. It’s your voice we want to hear. 

Barb’s Poem

Breastfeeding

Today a cardinal blazes by
Lands at the table feeder;
begins to eat most happily

I never knew I loved the birds

Until the birds
Were all that were
Left to see

I never knew how much I’d miss

Raising children
until my sons
were grown and gone

I never knew how much I’d miss

The games they played
The songs they sang
The way they called me mom

I remember the chores
The laundry, the exhaustion, the squabbles
The constant feedings

I never knew how much I loved

Their hungry mouths feeding
nestled like precious gems
against my beating heart