"This Moment" by Lauren McBride

This Moment

Sitting beside my garden,

the bills on my lap      forgotten,

    porch              

                              swing 

              slow

                      ing;

too busy this moment

watching bees and butterflies

trading flowers.

--Lauren McBride

Poet’s Notes: I think it's important to let ourselves get distracted from the must-dos in life and enjoy the moment. That being the purpose of this poem, I could stop these notes right now. 

Instead, I will share that in early versions, I changed "bills" to "book" thinking that image would connect with more people. Yet I was paying bills when this poem came to me, trying to make a chore more pleasant by taking it outside, which actually made it take longer, but was infinitely more rewarding.

Editor’s Note on the Poem:  I love the way Lauren placed her words here to evoke the gentle swinging of a porch swing.  Using white space in this way is unique to the poetic art form, something prose simply cannot do.  I also appreciate the double meaning of the title here:  “moment” as in “a snapshot of time” and “moment” as in the “momentum” of the porch swing. 

Editor's Note on the Graphic:  The lady depicted in the graphic is NOT the mysterious and reclusive Lauren McBride.  No one knows what she looks like, not even I.