Turtle

An excerpt from the poem,
Turtle,
by poetlaurette, Kay Ryan

She lives
below luck-level, never imagining
some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience, the sport of truly chastened things.

Recently, I read an article about Kay Ryan and discovered that, in her life, she has been a reluctant poet. If not for the support and prodding of her companion, who stuffed envelopes with self-published books of poetry and sent them to nameless publishers, we may never have read her poetry... I am glad Kay Ryan had such a dear partner.

The article gave me pause to think of my own struggles. For years, I have had an underlying feeling that some day I would wake up and realize the life of a potter is not for me-that I would eventually join the 9-5 world in a more traditional approach to making money...

For some reason, just the other day, out of the blue and in response to nothing, I had this sense of calm and acceptance. The underlying feeling just disappeared. So today, I can say, "I am a potter, and that is that."

In the beginning, I had a road map in my head of what success would mean. I haven't fulfilled my fantasy of big city shows and high end galleries, but something even better has happened... I am part of the intimate rituals carried out daily by people who know and love me. In the end, I think I've succeeded in ways I could not have imagined years ago.

I'm the lucky person who gets to make...

Keepsakes for JK and Vaughn's Wedding Guests

and harvest the bounty from my garden...

...and share my life with lovely people who are always quick to appreciate me.
Thank you.