GRATITUDE

Morris’ poetry collection plays with the potency of brevity.

As noted in this book’s subtitle, the author has given the works in this collection the constraint of very short lengths. Perhaps this approach is aimed at an audience with little time to spare, since each poem can be read in a stolen minute before a morning commute or during an afternoon lull between plans; the poems can also serve as daily meditations. (Morris’ own meditation practice inspired them.) The works are numbered rather than titled and can be read in any order; as the title suggests, all are tinged with gratitude for small events that one otherwise might take for granted, from finding a rose “perfect in its glory” in a garden to driving through a tunnel. They also address weightier matters, such as reconciling one’s dreams with one’s lived life, aspects of faith and aging, and how love endures and changes through time. What readers will connect with may depend on their specific feelings when opening the book; one’s emotional state could make lines such as “I am looking / For the lost / Moment / Between this / And next,” or “There is / ‘I love you’ / And then / There is / I love you” feel either pensive or cliched. The conciseness of the poems can also leave some feeling so open-ended and general that their impact is lessened. The strongest works provide more precise shades of Morris’ personal opinions and experiences, as when one poem notes that not every minute of the day requires an optimistic outlook: “Three o’clock: / Best described / As non-descript. / Afternoon’s midriff, / Not a meal in sight. / It sags, unloved, / Sitting patiently / On the tarmac / Of cocktail’s runway.”

A serious-minded, if sometimes indistinct, survey of life’s small memories.