Poetry, says Wendy Morton, is the shortest distance between two hearts.

The first time I read that quote, I read it as the shortest dance between two hearts, and I like that too.

Wendy Morton is a Canadian writer and poet.

The blurb of her memoir, Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Taking Poetry Public Across Canada, says that she has “probably done more to bring poetry and publicity together than any other living Canadian. Since 2001, she has relentlessly taken poetry out of bookstores and coffeeshops, out onto the street--"even into the air "--bringing corporate sponsors, poets and audiences together in new and exciting ways.”

This poem, "Compost Piles", is a gorgeous little riff about a simple daily ritual, bringing the bucket to the compost pile, spread over the expanse of a year, and all the little recollections it prompts.

Mindfulness has become big business in recent years. This poem is the essence of mindfulness: the worm, the grass from the year’s first cut, the half-eaten slice of bread all bringing memories of their moments back to the surface.

And it brings to mind also that old teaching from Newton’s science: that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only changed from one form into another.

The compost bin is the daily evidence of that transformation, as this year’s cuttings and throw-aways and deadness give way to next year’s life.

You can read the poem here

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