Laura Grace Weldon

Laura Grace Weldon works as an editor and leads workshops on memoir, poetry, and creative thinking. She’s the author of four books. The poetry collections Portals (Middle Creek, 2021), Blackbird (Grayson Books, 2019), and Tending (Aldrich, 2013), along with a handbook of natural education titled Free Range Learning (Hohm Press, 2010). Laura was the 2019 Ohio Poet of the Year.

Everything, Anything

“Find everything you’re looking for?” a clerk asks

and I say, “I’m still looking for world peace.”

“Can I get you anything else?” a nurse asks

and I say, “Yes, a safe haven for refugees.”

For a millisecond, their faces soften

as they take a deep breath of imagining

then laugh or shake their heads

or commiserate. For a few minutes

we might even discuss

our planet’s highest possibilities.

Maybe that deep breath,

that imagining,

is a starting place.

— Laura Grace Weldon