Looking Around, Believing by Gary Soto

This week, Gary Soto reminds us that we can always stop to find the world miraculous.

Looking Around, Believing

How strange that we can begin at any time.
With two feet we get down the street.
With a hand we undo the rose.
With an eye we lift up the peach tree
And hold it up to the wind — white blossoms
At our feet. Like today. I started
In the yard with my daughter,
With my wife poking at a potted geranium,
And now I am walking down the street,
Amazed that the sun is only so high,
Just over the roof, and a child
Is singing through a rolled newspaper
And a terrier is leaping like a flea
And at the bakery I pass, a palm,
Like a suctioning starfish, is pressed
To the window. We're keeping busy —
This way, that way, we're making shadows
Where sunlight was, making words
Where there was only noise in the trees.

Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California in 1952 to working-class, Mexican-American parents. He is the author of many books of poetry, including, most recently A Simple Plan (Chronicle books). Soto currently resides in Northern California.