Synkroniciti is pleased to welcome back Californian poet David Holper with a beautiful tribute to his wife, “Ordinary Miracle.” His gentle lyricism is peppered with homespun wisdom. “You spread happiness as if it were peanut/ butter, as if it were your full-time gig/ to crack open the broken places in people’s/ hearts and let the sunshine come pouring in.” David shows us that she has been joyful and caring through mundane everyday life and through dark days of illness and cancer. Loss didn’t stop her “from believing in a place where death has no voting rights when it comes to the people you love.” He reminds us to look at our loved ones with wonder, to allow them to be familiar and yet always full of unexpected delight. “The thing is, I didn’t believe in miracles growing up. I didn’t believe that the lame could walk, that the blind could see, that oceans could be parted or that the dead could rise up out of the earth and shake off their grave clothes and join us for drinks at 6.” David uses repetition and enjambment to shepherd this outpouring of love and vulnerability. Companionship and communication are the heart of any relationship and “Ordinary Miracle” is a testament to how strong the bond between two souls can be.
Read “Ordinary Miracle” in Synkroniciti’s “Vulnerable” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
David Holper has published three collections of poetry, Language Lessons: A Linguistic Hejira (Deeper Magic Press), The Bridge (Sequoia Song Publications) and 64 Questions (March Street Press). His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, and he has won numerous poetry competitions, including the Synkroniciti award for best poem in the September “Broken” issue, 2023; second place in relationships for Write from the Heart Anthology 2023; the Barbara Curiel Award for a poem titled “Depaysement” in Toyon 2018; the Noctua Review poetry contest for spring 2017; the Rotting Post humor competition for fall 2016; and the Jodi Stutz prize fromToyon 2017 for his poem “Cana de Azucar.” Additionally, he has been nominated for a Pushcart by Relief Journal for a poem called “Doubt.”His fiction has appeared in various quarterlies, including Grand Street, the New Virginia Review, and Callaloo. He lives in Eureka, California, where he served as the City of Eureka’s inaugural poet laureate from August 2019-August 2021.