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Archive for November, 2019

And No Key

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 19, 2019| 6 Comments »

 

 

 

I plunge both hands

into the love poem,

 

surprised to find

they’re now handcuffed there.

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DOOGOOD! Random acts of kindness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 19, 2019| Leave a Comment »

If you could use some good news, find your way to DOOGOOD Stories, an international site hosted in Finland, sharing stories of random acts of kindness around the world and their ripple effects.

If you scroll around, you’ll find where I talk about one of my mentors, Art Goodtimes, and how a simple and personal interaction 25 years ago changed everything about how I meet the world, and how that random act of kindness is one of the seeds that made this site and the daily poems happen.

Check it out!

 

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This Is No Slap Dash Quiz

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 18, 2019| 4 Comments »

 

 

Part of me wants to give you

the book of answers, the solution key,

to help you know which decision, A, B, C or D,

will bring the most healing, the most happiness.

I no longer believe in such a book, such a key.

 

Instead I wish for you the peace

that comes only with surrender—

a word that sounds beyond reason

until it becomes beacon, becomes

north star, becomes map.

 

May you know for certain

that in every case, you are beloved.

May you know beyond doubt

that no matter what happens,

you always become more essential, more you.

 

 

 

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Beside the River with My Daughter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

Hundreds of smooth red stones—

we gathered them that summer

and spent days carefully laying them out

into a wide and winding red path.

It had no real starting point, no destination.

We tucked white daisies between the rocks.

We said it was for the fairies.

I wouldn’t have said it then, in fact,

I hesitate today to say we didn’t believe in them.

They gave us so much purpose.

Even now, I’m following that path.

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The Gnoissienne 2 Speaks

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

 

yet another poem inspired by this composition by Erik Satie

 

 

You wonder why I haunt you

like moonlight, why I come to you

like morning fog, dream thick and cool,

why I steep myself into your thoughts

like bergamot in black tea.

You wonder why I seldom leave you,

why I slip into your silences

the way rye darkly slips into bread.

 

It is my work to give you shivers,

make you tremble, make you still.

It is my work to make you fall in love

with the darkness inside yourself. It is my work

to be the unexpected black swan, and you,

it is your work to be the night pond.

 

 

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Wellspring of Imagination

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

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Truth serum cannot be made alone. We will begin with stories

in which there are red flowers, white flowers, maggots, gold.

Add walks in the woods where the walls of the gorge

still remember when they were plateau. Hours

of listening to the other voices of ourselves speaking.

Bright chime of a singing bowl. Scent of burnt toast.

Taste of wild muscadine. Snaps and laughter and scratch

of pen on paper. Acorns and snake skin and hazelwood.

There is truth here to be found, but no one

can serve it to you. You must choose it. And it’s slippery–

like your own handwriting that you later can’t read,

like wet leaves on a hill, like the sun that enters the grove,

then is gone.

 

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Check out this great program here

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Especially When It Seems Impossible

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 14, 2019| 5 Comments »

 

 

Try to praise the mutilated world

            —Adam Zagajewski

 

 

The cratered earth

and the blood stained shirts

and the men with guns

and the hate sharp words

and the sour rooms

that never see sun

and the rashes, the cancers

the blackened lungs

 

and still, there are paths

in Ohio woods

where upended trees

show elaborate roots

and the water seeps

in the ancient gorge,

and dead leaves fuel

whole dominions of soil

 

and though beauty

can be hard to reconcile,

worse to ignore it,

worse to look away,

worse in this mutilated world

to pretend we don’t have

ten thousand times ten thousand

reasons to praise.

 

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One Almost Miss

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 14, 2019| 1 Comment »

 

 

catching the plane—

five hours later this heart

still rushing to the gate

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Re-Seeing the Obvious

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 12, 2019| 2 Comments »

 

 

When pregnant, it was clear

I was along for the ride with a miracle.

Sure, I could eat organic broccoli,

walk and eschew caffeine,

but that was just taking care

of the vessel. Life itself

was doing the real work.

 

Imagine my surprise today

to realize I’m still along for the ride.

How did I ever kid myself

that I was in charge?

And oh, the bliss today

to notice anew these hands,

these eyes, these feet!

What joy to see them again

as the miracle they are,

to offer them in service to life.

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How to Celebrate a New Year??

Posted in Uncategorized on November 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Join me and artist Meredith Nemirov at the Ah Haa School’s amazing (and elegant) New Year’s Eve Gala … art and poetry and incredible food to celebrate the old, bless the new and remember what is vitally important in the present.

 

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