The Danish word, hygge (pronounced hoo-ga), refers to anything that offers a quality of coziness, comfort, and well-being.
Steam rises from broth on the stove
and fogs the windows as we move across
cold floors in wool socks and flannel,
chopping carrots, onions, and potatoes
for the chicken soup that's slowly coming.
Outside, the red coal of a cardinal burns
a hole in the otherwise white day while
inside, when it's time to eat, we fill
our bowls to brimming with this medicine
we have made together out of all the earth
gave when it was awake, and all it will
give again—that guarantee stored like
the sun in every warm bite, in every sip
that goes down as golden as summer light.
James Crews is the author of three collections of poetry, The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, and Bluebird. He is also the editor of Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. He lives with his husband in Shaftsbury, Vermont.
No comments:
Post a Comment