The Second Blush: Poems

Whenever I come across a poem that resonates with me, I feel as though I’m meeting a long lost friend who reminds me of what’s really important in life. The Second Blush is a collection of poetry by Molly Peacock, a poet and author based in Toronto, who writes about everyday life with the eye of an artist and the voice of a poet. Peacock, who found love in her forties with her high school sweetheart, writes about love, marriage, loss, and everyday angst and absurdities in a way that is both fresh and familiar.

In “The Cliffs of Mistake” she writes:

To know you’re making a mistake as you make it, yet not able to stop, is to step off a cliff, expecting To scramble backward and up through the air to stand on the outcrop you stepped from, even though it can’t unhappen as you backpeddle wildly with the second step, looking far below onto the moraine of pain, you anticipate later, which is now only the shock of recognizing the result...

Poetry tends to be an overlooked art form in our culture, but a gifted poet has the ability to make us stop and pay attention to both the hum drum routine of our lives and those unexpected elements of surprise that catch us unawares. Poets and artists of all genres have the capacity to teach us how to live mindfully and not just speed through life on auto pilot.

At the risk of too much disclosure, I recently read some of Peacock’s poetry out loud and found the cadence and sound of the words gave even more strength and power to her work. A writing coach once advised me that reading your work out loud will make it better. Peacock’s work needs no further improvement, but if I need some inspiration for how to see the world in all its simplicity and complexity, I will find my way back to Peacock’s poetry.

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