Gail Goepfert

THE PRACTICE OF GRATITUDE

Thank you, I repeat
these words to my body.

For flawed and forgotten places—

where shadows flame the wall
and frozen pictures 
of past mistakes hang—
dissonance
of a thousand small disasters.

Praise again, body
for waking from the sleep
of befores,
for the voice small 
but leathered
calling me back 
to the here, to the constant 
pinging within. 

Dawn flickers
as if choreographed.
In a fog of purpled sky, 
sunlight scatters 
the first 
of its small change.

Yes, thank you, body. 
You weather the silt
of surprise and sorrow—
fullness 
hinges on this.

Gail Goepfert, an associate editor at RHINO Poetry, is a Midwest poet, teacher, and photographer. Her first chapbook, A Mind on Pain, appeared in 2015 and a book, Tapping Roots, from Aldrich Press in 2018. Get Up Said the World will appear in 2020 from Červená Barva Press. Recent publications include Kudzu House, Stone Boat, Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine, Bluestem, Open: Journal of Arts and Letters, SWWIM, Rogue Agent, and Beloit Poetry Journal. More at gailgoepfert.com.