Los Angeles announced a while back that a Metro bus card will feature the poem “Gift,” by Czeslaw Milosz. The Metro people said, “Poetry can soothe the soul of many a traveler. The poetry cards on Metro Buses – you’ll find them scattered about in that indented ledge above the windows – have become a welcome respite from a busy day and a pause for reflection, which is not a bad thing when it comes to rush hour.”
“Gift” was written in Berkeley, California. It celebrates the beauty of the world around us, which can make us forget the difficulty and pain of life.
Gift
A day so happy.
Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.