Conjure something glowing
 Take this day
 You were born with hands for spinning
 Talent for dreams and making them real

 Roll the hours like yarn
 Spin something that makes you feel full
 And big and open to talk

 Make this day your own square
 In your own life quilt
 So shining it brighten the whole of your years
 This far
 Make this day like one of God's seven.

A friend met this poet at a conference and bought one of her books. “You’ll like her,” he said, and I opened the slim volume feeling predictable and curious. Had never heard of Forman before but some of her poetry felt like an old, old friend. I like this poet even at the cost of being predictable. She shines real with love and human-ness. This one was my favorite, it’s one of those poems that picks you up if you’re down and shakes you firmly and enchantingly out of your own excuses for not carpe-ing the diem. “Conjure something glowing” An irresistible invitation into this poem, this day, this life…

Lilies-of-the-field no toil, no spin. Un-aspiring and splendid…and what of us? Blessed with a beauty beyond lilies we work and dream - or Can. A loving urgency in this poem pointing us to the potential within not just the hours but ourselves. Homespun imagery makes her words comfortable, familiar - themselves a handmade quilt thrown across the page warm and deep and spirit-lifting (quilts are wonderful things. poems can be too.) Pick up the colored ‘shreds and patches’ of your life, and stitch the mystery and the mundanity into something meaningful and alive. When she puts it like that how do you decline? It’s hard if not impossible. “Make this day like one of God’s seven.”

An order, a dare, a mantra …an inspiration. And now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go carpe what’s left of the diem.

— pavi

Biography
http://www.bickley.com/authors.html