The Beauty of It

Today's photo shows The Little Red Car (of "Squiggles and Giggles" fame) taking a look back while we were sitting in a parking lot.

Today's poem, if not on the first reading, then certainly on the second, reveals itself. My poems, after all, display their meaning fairly near the surface.

But the poem, which you may have seen before, came to me again as I was thinking about something which had been on my mind for several months ... 

It came to me during a long, long day which began amid the trimmings of medical science ... the lights, instruments, glowing screens, careful, attentive, caring medical practitioners.

I was a cancer patient, had been undergoing treatment for several months, and there were other treatments remaining. But the prognosis was good.

I didn't spread the word initially because I found it difficult to talk about ... I knew people would have questions ... and I wasn't prepared for that.

Finally, my intuition told me that I needn't keep guarding this as a "secret." 

There was no need to keep the facts any longer from friends, from visitors to this page ... particularly since my oncologist had finally released me from treatment. 

With many thanks for readers' comments ... which helped to keep me going all those busy months ... sustained me ... and with special thanks to Phyllis, who was with me every step of the way, here's the poem:

THE BEAUTY OF IT

The beauty of intuition
is that you don’t have to analyze,
hypothesize, or otherwise

do anything about it:
You may just sit quietly
and let it come to you,

unfolding like a tightly-wound
rosebud transforming itself,
wafting about while you

breathe in an understanding,
an answer to the question
you hadn't even asked.

© 2003
(originally published in Poem)

Today's word: intuition