The Living Poetry Project 27: Coffee as Possession

Possession by Angela Ball is a book I’ve carried with me for years. Her book (in many ways) has become a good friend with the difficult advice I need.

Her book examines the things we own and how those things in turn own us.

One of my favorite stanzas from the book comes from its title poem, “Possession,” which reads:

“How can you laugh at little things?”

a woman asks. “Our baby’s

gone, and my life’s gone, too.”

Soon loss is more precious

than the baby, than anything.

This poem “Possession then ends with:

A wish is all there is,

long payment for something happy.

Every person’s guilty

of spring and spring’s ending.

As the baby falls off my son and he becomes a child (and all too soon an adult), it is difficult to not get caught up in the loss of it—the loss of something that was never mine to possess.

As the financial climate continues to trouble me and those around me, it is difficult not to feel shame for the things I don’t have—or sadness for the things I can’t give.

BUT, Possession comes in with its humming song and reminds me spring is mine—the moment is mine and yours–life and poetry belong to us.

To celebrate this collection I made poetry cups to give out. Poetry + Coffee = The Moment.

Spring to All.

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