Happiness

_Cross Creek_
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“The magnolia tree”

"I do not know the irreducible minimum of happiness for any other spirit than my own. It is impossible to be certain even of mine. Yet I believe that I know my tangible desideratum. It is a tree top against a patch of sky. If I should be crippled or long ill, or should have the quite conceivable misfortune to be clapped in jail, I could survive, I think, given this one token of the physical world.

The tree was a magnolia... "

I do not know my irreducible minimum for happiness.
I suspect that I can not reduce my choice to one.

This morning my choose would be
the panorama of the fog
lingering on the east shore
hiding the hillside and mansion...

During the night I'd have chosen
the sight
of a huge black cloud
hovering over the river...
a monster shape.

This noon I'd have to select
a sailboat bobbing
on the river
in the September sunshine.

Now it's a baby cap
knit with bright yellow yarn
in a twisted rib pattern creating
a bell shape.

I must conjecture
that my survival is aligned
to river watching and
knitting.

Needles and twisted threads
engage my hands
and spark the yarns
incubating in my imagination.

Let me tell you about the monster
threatening the river folk
in the year of Our Lord 2007.