Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week features Susan Goldberg.
Goldberg lives in Rockford, but she grew up on a small farm near a town in Indiana. Goldberg’s sister Jane taught her to read in a tiny school classroom --also known as their bedroom -- before she started kindergarten. Goldberg said she briefly directed a grade school play, but that venture came to an abrupt halt when the actors complained that she was too bossy. Today’s poem is called “Abundance.”
All raining down on me: words falling like raindrops,
The fat ones that plop when you open the window to listen.
And music, and film, and times of gathering,
All a surprise.
None of this was planned. I just stumbled upon it all. And what started this rain?
Was it that time I cried to the heavens to spare me from the desert?
Maybe it was when I recalled that my friend, who later earned a Ph.D.,
Got fired from a job because he couldn’t make sandwiches fast enough?
Or the time I got a letter from someone who said that she loved my writing
the day after my difficult boss had asked, “Have people told you
that you have trouble writing?”
Maybe it was once
When I wasn’t looking
And I opened my arms wide
And caught a pen
In my open palm
And started to write.
