every pumpkin knows
you need just enough air
for the candle to burn,
just enough shelter
to keep the flame alive
Archive for October, 2017
Dear Abby Offers Advice to the Newly Weds on Halloween
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged marriage, poem, poetry, pumpkin on October 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Just Ask Persephone
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, pomegranate, woman on October 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Like a pomegranate, full
of hidden seeds.
That’s what they say
about a woman’s mind.
What they don’t know is
exactly how juicy
those seeds might be,
how full of sweetness,
how red, how if they
were planted, the world
would never look
the same again.
Ten More Haikulings for Kids
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poems for kids, poetry on October 28, 2017| 3 Comments »
wanna play?
says the mud
to my feet
*
laying in the grass
letting its thousand fingers
tickle me
*
wishing on a star
that is wishing
on me
*
pages torn
the old book holds
no less wonder
*
asking the donut hole
if it has any idea
where the donut went
*
sorry about the flour—
the pillow igloo
needed snow
*
guess it wanted
to fly kites, too,
that cottonwood tree
*
wishing mom had a pocket
like a kangaroo—
I might even stop bouncing then
*
someday that light switch
is going to look up
to me
*
making a pact
with the lemmings—
let’s all run in circles!
RSVP
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged falling in love with the world, poem, poetry on October 27, 2017| 1 Comment »
Again this call
to love the world—
though there are men
with buttons to push
who could turn it to ash
within hours, though
people have tongues
that fork and curl,
though the things
and beings we love most
disappear.
And still this sweet
metronome of breath
ticking here, here.
And the scent
of the leaf pile,
loamy and playful.
And the pansy in October
still purple and soft.
Turn to the sun,
let it touch your skin
like a lover, so tender,
warm. Now spread that shine.
It’s what we do.
Ten Haikulings for Kids
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged children's poetry, poem, poetry on October 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »
night with no moon
making friends
with the dark
*
finding a ring on the ground—
the world and I
get married
*
trading places with the wind—
at least it doesn’t have to
eat vegetables
*
finding the perfect shell—
giving it back
to the sea
*
belly flop!
you bet I’ll
do it again!
*
not my fault the spaceman
came with confetti—
cleaning my bedroom anyway
*
jumping off the swing again
hoping this time
I grow wings
*
do streetlamps get lonely?
giving one a hug
just in case
*
why does it always
fly straight,
this boomerang?
*
hopscotch in the rain
all the squares
run away
One the Day After
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cat, death, emptiness, loss, poem, poetry on October 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »
One Unforgettable
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged memory, poem, poetry on October 24, 2017| 2 Comments »
A Shade of the Truth
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aging, poem, poetry, truth on October 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »
How soon the flowers wilt.
Wasn’t it just yesterday
you planted them, just an hour ago
there were mounds of bloom
shining in the rain?
You want to believe there’s a flower
that never stops opening,
want to believe that flower
is you.
A Poem Not Really About Gardening
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged parenting, poem, poetry, potatoes on October 22, 2017| 2 Comments »
Just today, in the garden,
I found dozens of dark blue
McHugh Blue potatoes,
hard and small, their
delicious fists hiding
in the cool soil.
How wonderful the world is
if you just dig a little.
All those things you planted,
they show up, even though
everything around them
looks dead.
Don’t be in a hurry,
the woman said,
and I realized
I was wishing away
these difficult days.
Imagine how patient
the ground.
Hymn to What’s Bare
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged emptiness, fall, poem, poetry, soul, wind on October 21, 2017| 2 Comments »
Last night’s wind scoured
the trees and stripped
their boughs—
it is easy in today’s calm
to wish my soul had been out
in the woods last night.
Emptiness reveals more
than all the gold, all design.
Annual Check Up
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged children, parenting, poem, poetry on October 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »
The doctor checks their pulses,
their ears, their throats,
knee reflexes and weight
and dubs them healthy,
gives them high fives
without mentioning
(did he not notice?)
that they have wings.
One Almost 5’10
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged growth, parenting, poem, poetry on October 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »
the tree I planted
now taller than I—
my empty hand
still remembering
the weight of the acorn
Where We Are Headed
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged communion, flowers, identity, naming, poem, poetry on October 18, 2017| 3 Comments »
I resist any kind of discourse that anchors itself in identity and proceeds from there. As I said before, I want to get behind categorical distinctions and find and work with what human beings share and how, potentially, people can coexist in a world that is extraordinarily diverse.
—Michael D. Jackson, “The Politics of Storytelling” in the Harvard Divinity School News
At first we just say flower. How
thrilling it is to name. Then it’s
aster. Begonia. Chrysanthemum.
We spend our childhood learning
to separate one thing from another.
Daffodil. Edelweiss. Fern. We learn
which have five petals, which have six.
We say, “This is a gladiolus, this hyacinth.”
And we fracture the world into separate
identities. Iris. Jasmine. Lavender.
Divorcing the world into singular bits.
And then, when we know how to tell
one thing from another, perhaps
at last we feel the tug to see not
what makes things different, but
what makes things the same. Perhaps
we feel the pleasure that comes
when we start to blur the lines—
and once again everything
is flower, and by everything,
I mean everything.
One Lament
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cat, death, letting go, poem, poetry on October 17, 2017| 3 Comments »
In the ragged purr of the cat
in my lap I hear all the sun
she has yet to curl into,
all the mice she has yet
to chase, all the days
we don’t have left.
In an Hour We Live a Lifetime
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged friendship, inner knowing, path, poem, poetry on October 16, 2017| 2 Comments »
for Susan
Walking the world of dry leaves
and rickety bridges,
there as in old letters,
we marvel at the things
we once knew that we have
just recently discovered—
How new it all is again.
How we orbit the same sun
every day and still
can be astonished
by the way things
shine.
One More Chance to Struggle Gracefully
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged failure, journey, poem, poetry, whistling on October 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »
That’s what cars are for,
said the master whistler, when I told him
I could not whistle.
I auditioned for him
with my one-note draft,
and he said, Yeah, I
can work with that,
which I took to mean
that I could work with that.
Eventually, he said,
you’ll arrive at a tone.
And so I whistled
four hours as I drove north,
starting with Moon River,
Skylark, and Paris in Springtime,
then, demoralized
by lack of progress,
turned on the eighties station
and created a breeze
to accompany INXS, Howard Jones,
Prince and Tone Loc.
The difference between
what I heard in my head
and what came from my lips—
so much beauty
missing. And just
before arriving at my own
front door, I had somehow
begun a gusty rendition
of When the Saints Go Marching In,
and thought to myself,
yeah, I think I might
be getting it, but five
verses later laughed
at my longing for success.
When I opened the door
of the car, I felt the wind
meet my face. I let it
carry the almost notes
and decided tomorrow
I’d try some Moondance
and Fever before Hot Cross Buns,
knowing how it takes
a lot of wind
before one’s ship comes in.
One Out of the Comfort Zone
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, risk, wings on October 15, 2017| 4 Comments »
Taos Storytelling Festival, October 14
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Andy Offutt Irwin, Cisco Guevara, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Taos Storytelling Festival on October 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »
What is the difference between storytelling and poetry? I think they are both trying to build the same bridge–helping us connect with each other and the world around us.
I’ll be performing tonight at the Taos Storytelling Festival along with Cisco Guevara of Taos, Andy Offutt Irwin of Georgia and the winner of last night’s story slam. If you’re in Taos, I hope you can join me at 7 p.m. at the Taos Community Auditorium. And if you can’t, you can still read about it here ….
After the story slam tonight, I am eager to go to more storytelling events–intoxicating!