Presence — Summary

errands on my mind like a doting comb

let all be forgot but this ridge this former peak

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

Two short stanzas, and a small shift of attention. At first the speaker's mind is busy with errands, the everyday to-do list. The comparison to a "doting comb" is gentle and a little funny: the chores keep tugging through the mind the way a fussy, affectionate hand might keep combing the same hair. They are not cruel or heavy, just constant.

Then the speaker lets all of that go. "Let all be forgot but this ridge" reads like a wish or a quiet command, and the poem narrows to one place. The ridge is also called a "former peak," which suggests something worn down by time, no longer dramatic, but still there and still solid. The speaker seems to find calm in that humbler, older landscape.

The mood is peaceful and attentive. The title, "Presence," fits: being fully where you are, with worries falling away. The poem doesn't explain this feeling. It simply lets the ridge take over the mind.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Plea bargain

I hear half a beat of drum to serve time have half a hope in the meantime praise God
DreamyDave Bonta

Cibola 3

I awake in the dark and shake free of sheets & blankets, of down-filled quilt. The rituals of waking– the long, hot shower, the coffee–give
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss