Stuart Gunter
The Big STOP
Checking in with my 85-year-old meditation
teacher during the early stages of the pandemic
I appreciate her response: I am loving this STOP.
Thanks for the offer. I cannot think of a single
want right now. If I can think of a single want
right now it is to love this big STOP and find
the silver linings in slowing down, stopping.
The earth healing from our slowing down,
pollution declining in Italy. I leave my car
in the driveway and walk the dogs, cook beans
and rice over fire. A baseball sits on the back
porch, waiting for the delayed season, robins
and cardinals calling from the redbuds and dogwoods.
—Submitted on 03/25/2020
Stuart Gunter‘s poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Hiram Poetry Review, Appalachian Journal, The Chattahoochee Review, and Into the Void, among other journals. Gunter is working toward a master’s degree in mental health counseling at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. He was recently accepted into the MFA program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He and lives in Schuyler, Va.
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