Patience

Since I'm on a jag here, and posting poetry, and thirsting for words lately like a shady, cool outdoor shower on a dusty, hot day, here's one from our new, 16th Poet Laureate. Enjoy yourself.

Patience
by Kay Ryan


Patience is
wider than one
once envisioned,
with ribbons
of rivers
and distant
ranges and
tasks undertaken
and finished
with modest
relish by
natives in their
native dress.
Who would
have guessed
it possible
that waiting
is sustainable—
a place with
its own harvests.
Or that in
time's fullness
the diamonds
of patience
couldn't be
distinguished
from the genuine
in brilliance
or hardness.