A Spark for Marie Kondo
Was it an intellectual who told you
it’s possible to have too many books?
I didn’t think so. Different forces hold you
in thrall: TV deals, real estate, chic looks.
Speaking of which, what does spark joy for me
is staying far away from any store
where size-play, mind-play, sharp cacaphony,
and fragrances harangue me to buy more—
even online. For this freedom, I choose
to keep two closetfuls of clothes and shoes.
Claudia Gary lives near Washington, DC and teaches workshops on Villanelle, Sonnet, Natural Meter, Poetry vs. Trauma, and the science of poetry at writer.org, currently via teleconference. Author of Humor Me (2006), and of chapbooks including Genetic Revisionism (2019) and Bikini Buyer’s Remorse (2015), she is also a health science writer, visual artist, and composer of tonal chamber music and art songs. See pw.org/content/claudia_gary; follow @claudiagary.