Small Doors

I have been thinking
about poetry
and how it is most often
simply opening
one small door
into the seemingly ordinary
and expanding into
what is beyond-
a whole world
that has always been here
but that I had never
taken the time to consider.

Everywhere I look
these small doors exist,
opening to worlds
within and within.

I take a walk
in the neighborhood
and every house,
now closed up
like a book on a shelf,
contains infinite stories
of people,
relationships and histories
the complexities of which
I will never know.

I take a walk
in the woods
and every tree,
every plant
pulses with hidden life.
Every creature
contains mysteries
too many to know.

There is comfort
living in this
expanding abundance,
knowing that
everywhere I look,
a poem is waiting
for its door to be opened.

By Maria Brady-Smith
Photo by Mike Smith