A friend lent me a book, “Happiness is an inside job” by Dr. Sylvia Boorstein. It’s about “practicing for a joyful life”. Not my usual reading material – there’s no time travel (so far), robots, or military strategy I can apply at work (for fun). But because I’m trying to live outside of my comfort zone, I cracked it open.

As I leafed through the book and tried reading pages, I got distracted by the last words in each sentence. Those words – wisdom, world, benevolent, despair, steadfast and others – jumped up and waved at me. I found myself jotting them down, rearranging them, and adding my own words. After 20 min, I had three poems and a collection title. Poem titles are simply the page number where Dr. Boorstein’s words reside in their end-of-line positions. Here’s the start:

From Found Words Rise the Tasks of Messengers

p. 1
a conversation in illness
this heart stopped
and a bell rang
eager
for an inconvenient end

p. 15
other than human,
his image steadfast –
the legend
a lifetime feels

p. 53
selfish wishes
in a well-asked world
limit wisdom
and breed benevolent despair