You Belong
by James Crews
Step out and breathe in the fog
that smudges this summer morning.
Touch the hot-pink petals
of echinacea studded with droplets
each of which contains whole planets
you will never set foot on.
Know that you also hold many worlds
unseen inside you, as do
the tiny leopard frogs who leap up
out of the way when you walk
through the grass. Let the wet blades
stroke your legs, soak your sandals,
and call each shiver evidence
of your aliveness, proof that you too
belong on the earth.
James Crews’ work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New Republic, as well as on Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry newspaper column. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in Writing & Literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is the author of four collections of award-winning poetry, including The Book of What Stays (Prairie Schooner Prize and Foreword Book of the Year Citation, 2011), Telling My Father (Cowles Prize, 2017), Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of several anthologies of poetry: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection; and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. He leads Mindfulness & Writing retreats online and throughout the country, and works as a creative coach with groups and individuals. He lives with his husband, Brad Peacock, in Shaftsbury, Vermont.
*James Crews has given us permission to publish this poem.
