Sometimes the birds
fly low enough
and we are quiet enough
that the tremor of wings
becomes our own hearts
beating wild inside
our breath.
Archive for July, 2011
Each Time a Blessing
Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2011| 2 Comments »
But It Wasn’t a Path to Follow–video version
Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2011| 1 Comment »
Holding Each Other Sometimes Makes it Easier
Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2011| 1 Comment »
In the middle of the night
I wake, my boy’s face
above mine. “I had
a bad dream,” he says.
“It’s all falling apart.
I’m scared.” And I
walk him back to his
bed and hold him
for hours till at last
his breath again touches
the place of dreams
and all around
our spooning limbs
and quiet breath
the world continues
to fall apart.
Tanka from Minnesota
Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2011| 1 Comment »
In these travels
I bring along too much—
luckily the moon
takes up no room
in my suitcase
Tanka Not Really About Jam
Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Though I Still Have it on the Shelf
Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2011| 1 Comment »
Stones taught me to fly
—Damien Rice
The more
I break
the less interest
I have
in glue.
Look Around
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 84, homeostasis on July 27, 2011| 1 Comment »
Things fall apart—
the road
the cup
all I think
I know—
and
something
holds together
all this breaking
*This poem responds to the fourth power of the universe, as outlined by Brian Swimme, homeostasis. This is the way that the great achievements of the universe are maintained. For instance, mammalian bodies retain their structure, as does the biosphere, the oyster shell …
I Like it When it Happens This Way–video version
Posted in Uncategorized on July 26, 2011| 4 Comments »
Please?
Posted in Uncategorized on July 26, 2011| 1 Comment »
So we don’t
get to know
the way it ends
but please,
as we go
along,
let’s put
a little
happily ever
into
it
I Like It When It Happens this Way
Posted in Uncategorized on July 25, 2011| 2 Comments »
And the human heart is not personal: the more we fathom our own hearts, the more we find there the being of others and, beyond that, the very heart of the world itself. —Reginald Ray, “Looking Inward, Seeing Outward”
I ask
the world
to open me
and fling wide
both arms—
and the sky
rushes in
and my eyes
are guided
to find
my heart
hanging in trees,
strewn in an ant hill,
painted on a rock,
and everywhere
I am, I am not.
And Before, too, for that Matter
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged sky, tanka on July 25, 2011| 1 Comment »
Traditionally, clouds are symbolic of things indeterminate. Composed of air and water, their essential nature can be attributed to neither element but arises in an obscuring of the two, a betwixt-and-between phenomenon, not unlike human beings, those nebulous creatures who themselves seem caught between realms, floating along between the shimmering horizons of birth and death, here and there, earth and heaven. -John P. O’Grady, "Clouding"
I am a sky filled
with hundreds of cliff swallows
spiraling, plummeting,
equal parts fall and wing, and
I am the emptiness after.
It Can Be So Easy
Posted in Uncategorized on July 23, 2011| 1 Comment »
In the garden
it is easy to quiet
the mind and think
of nothing except
garden weeds, how grass
comes up between
tomatoes and carrots,
how bindweed winds
itself into the fence.
Not that I am really
thinking about weeds,
more about pulling them,
hoping for roots. Not
that I am actually
thinking much about
pulling them, actually,
the pulling just happens
and I happen to be there,
a woman attached
to the hands that pull,
and whatever in me
that is sad or heavy,
I don’t know where
it goes, but it leaves
me and all that is left
is a woman attached
to two hands that seem
content for hours
to pull weeds.
And I Accepted
Posted in Uncategorized on July 23, 2011| 1 Comment »
Grand Scheme
Posted in Uncategorized on July 22, 2011| 2 Comments »
We are twelve billion light years from the edge. That’s a guess.
—Katie Melua, “Nine Million Bicycles”
It took perhaps
one hundred fifty million years
of cell division
and genomic transition
to lead up to the moment
this morning in which
the heron, standing
so still in the river
was startled by my step
and extended his wings
to raise his great body
over the water
opening, as he lifted,
my heart.
Is this a long time,
or short?
What is Boundless
Posted in Uncategorized on July 20, 2011| 1 Comment »
Perhaps faith is nothing more than taking the risk to rest below the surface.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
They are blushing now,
the peaches, green
and blushing. No one
would think of eating
them yet, not even
the birds have begun
to peck at the flesh.
But here they are,
swelling, ripening
globes of potential.
If only we could relax
as the world shapes us,
could trust in the slowness,
the long goldening.
It is morning. It is
evening. It is now
and here we are,
our changes still changing.
No End
Posted in Uncategorized on July 19, 2011| 1 Comment »
And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
—Walt Whitman, from the preface to “Leaves of Grass”
A thousand worlds
left to see
let’s write
a story,
a surprise
on each page,
build the suspense
and then
But We Think We Know What It Will Look Like
Posted in Uncategorized on July 18, 2011| 4 Comments »
Standing in the thick green
of bindweed and cheesewheel
it is easy to dream of a time
when the garden is perfectly
hoed and the peppers hang
red on the stems, the green beans
dangle like long slender earrings
and the ears of corn swell with gold.
Silly dreamer, says Rumi, who
comes in to sit beside the peas.
You are waiting for a miracle
when it is already happening.
Shhhh: An Aural History How I’ve Spent My Years
Posted in Uncategorized on July 18, 2011| 3 Comments »
Singing.
Humming.
Tippy tapping
Sighing.
Oh my-ing.
Chitty chatting.
Blah blah blah-ing.
Ooh la la-ing.
Swooning.
Crooning.
Toodle-ooh-ing.
Snitty snitching.
diphthong hitching.
Moooooaaaaaaaning.
Harumphing.
Muttering something.
In vocal bliss
I somehow miss
the cloth to which
all sounds are stitched
and practice
oral violence.
Broken now,
I lean toward
But No, It’s an Inside Job
Posted in Uncategorized on July 16, 2011| 1 Comment »
Let’s open all the locked doors upon our eyes
that keep us from knowing the Intelligence
that begets love
—Hafiz, “Why Ask the Donkey
Though I have tried
to dismantle them,
there are still doors
on my eyes. Hinges
rusty, paint chipped,
old wood exposed,
but darned if they
don’t work at closing.
Please, if you know
where to find
a few termites,
let’s invite them
to my place for lunch.
Wash Park
Posted in Uncategorized on July 15, 2011| 2 Comments »
Surrender against God’s luminous breath.
—Hafiz , “I Wish”
In great swathes
the rain came down
and drenched us
in sky. It was not
a matter of how
to stay dry, rather
how to find joy
in the dousing.
The clouds hung
darksome and low,
but through gaps
a milky light spilled
and how could we
not notice then
how all the world
was shine, shine, shine.