Mr Cornelius and the Alphabet Soup kitchen helpers are especially excited to be celebrating 15 years of blogging. 15 years! So that means I started when I was just a toddler (picture chubby little hands tapping away on a keyboard). 😀

Back in 2007, I never dreamed I’d still be crafting posts in 2022. What’s most surprising is that I haven’t yet run out of things to say – pretty unusual for someone who’s not that talky in real life. But I do have the smartest, most inspiring blog readers so . . . 

Recently I was thrilled to stumble upon the perfect poem by former Maine poet laureate Stuart Kestenbaum. He’s new to me, and all I can say is, “Stuart, where have you been all my life?” Surely he wrote this one just for me.

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PRAYER FOR JOY
by Stuart Kestenbaum

What was it we wanted
to say anyhow, like today
when there were all the letters
in my alphabet soup and suddenly
the 'j' rises to the surface.
The 'j', a letter that might be
great for Scrabble, but not really
used for much else, unless
we need to jump for joy,
and then all of a sudden
it's there and ready to
help us soar and to open up
our hearts at the same time,
this simple line with a curved bottom,
an upside down cane that helps
us walk in a new way into this
forest of language, where all the letters
are beginning to speak,
finding each other in just
the right combination
to be understood.

~ from Only Now (Deerbrook Editions, 2014).

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