Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for April, 2020

The Temple of Here: Online Poetry & Meditation Retreat

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 30, 2020| 1 Comment »

 

Dear friends,

This Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., I will be co-leading an online poetry and meditation retreat with dharma teacher Susie Harrington. Please join us in the comfort of your own home in The Temple of Here,

“Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must meet it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.”

David Wagoner, “Lost”

As we shelter in place, how do we meet “the powerful stranger” of Here? In this online retreat, we will newly meet our everyday home and life through meditation and poetry. In a way, this is what every retreat most wants to do—help us to find the peace and inspiration available to us in our most everyday circumstances. From wherever you are, join us in a day where silence and language conspire to bring us ever closer to what is.

We will use the technology of Zoom to facilitate connection and communication from our different locations. It is free, easy to use, and available for all computers/tablets/smart phones. For those unfamiliar with Zoom, we will start the day at 9 am with a workshop to troubleshoot any challenges and give tips for using this technology. You will be sent instructions, links, and a schedule the day before the retreat.

Susie is also offering a separate, second day retreat: The Temple of Now. More information available on her website.

Cost: $40 – $100 sliding scale. (If the cost of the retreat is more than is appropriate for you at this time, please contact us. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.)

Read Full Post »

Making Apple Turnovers with my Daughter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 30, 2020| 4 Comments »

turnovers

 

 

My own fault for not reading all the directions

on how to make puff pastry from scratch—

how after the shaggy dough phase, you shape

and then chill. And then roll and fold and roll

and shape the dough. And chill. And then roll

and fold and roll and fold. And chill. Then roll

and slice. And chill. And fill. And chill. So often,

mid project, I find myself thinking I would never

have started this project had I known

how long it would take. Flour on my pants,

on the floor, on the table.

 

Six hours later, nearly midnight, my daughter

and I baste the chilled triangles with water,

sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar,

then put them in the oven at last. We are tired,

but the house fills with the sweet scent

of baking apple, the home-rich scent of crust.

 

What is life, but a big project we are in the middle of?

A project I’m in no hurry to finish.

In fact, these days are like puff pastry dough,

guiding me to take it slow, slower, to rest

between steps. I haven’t read all the directions.

For now I am laughing. It’s so much more

than I thought I was in for. But I’m here,

hands ready. I’m willing to work, to clean up the mess.

 

 

  • photo by Finn Trommer

Read Full Post »

Pneumonia

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 28, 2020| 4 Comments »

 

            —for A

 

 

And if I could, I would breathe for you.

I would inhale and exhale and hold

your breath for you. For you I would

sigh and rant, I would hack and pant,

I would be your lungs if I could. I would

ease this ache, I would carry this pain,

I would take away fear, I would be

the wind, the wild mesa wind,

the late April wind that blows change

into all we thought we knew

and rearranges the meaning of here.

No one could ever speak for you.

But I would breathe for you, friend.

Please, breathe, please keep breathing.

I need you to breathe for you, breathe

for me, please, friend. I wish I could

breathe for you, breathe for you.

Read Full Post »

An Interview with Laurie Wagner

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 28, 2020| 2 Comments »

Hello Friends,

Yesterday I had such a fun time with the fabulous Laurie Wagner, a writer and writing teacher in the Bay Area. She hosted this 20-minute interview with me about finding inspiration for writing, dancing with imperfectionism, and the benefits of a daily practice. It’s part of a writing series she is offering. For the last 25 years she has been teaching Wild Writing – which is a loose and juicy way to get to the heart of what you want to write about without the inner critic on your heels.  Until May 11th she is offering, for free, her 27 Wildest Day video series to help you chronicle your corona virus days and make it through captivity.  Find out more at https://27powers.org/27-wildest-days/

Read Full Post »

Riparian

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »

To be known by the river—
that is what I wanted,
which is to say,
to know the self
as the river knows it,
as something that might be carried,
something that will be eroded,
something that might wade
into the center and then join
in the flow of all things.

Read Full Post »

Surrender

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 27, 2020| 6 Comments »

 

IMG_0376_1

Some mornings I wake and the peace

that I tried to find yesterday finds me—

arrives in the open palms of the river scent,

in the erratic path of the warbler,

in the low golden angle of sun as it slants

through the gray knuckled branches of cottonwood trees.

Even the broken watering can seems to bring me

news of what’s been here all along—

the peace that holds up the turmoil, the mess.

And the dried grasses in the field

and the tiny new leaves on the currants

gather me into them. They’re like old friends who say,

It’s okay, make all the mistakes you want

around us. Some mornings, through no effort

of our own, we are gathered into the peace

of the patient lichen and the still pond.

It’s the difference between breathing

and being breathed, between asking for grace

and finding that grace has been asking for us.

Read Full Post »

I Want to Live in That Garden

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 25, 2020| 5 Comments »

 

 

What if, tonight, we all went to bed

and thought of our best version of our self.

It wouldn’t be true, of course. Not

in this moment, and not tomorrow.

Not mid-week. Not next week.

Not even next year. But if we could picture it,

it would be a goal we could live toward.

 

It would be, perhaps, like the garden beds

I prepared today—hoeing in fertilizer,

last year’s grass clippings, leaves.

When I was done, the rows still looked like dirt,

but such fine dirt it was for planting.

 

I believe in our resilience.

What is best in us is eager to grow,

like the sunflower sprouts

volunteering again this year.

What if tonight, we imagined the roots

of our goodness. What if tonight,

we planted only those seeds.

 

Read Full Post »

Extrapolation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 24, 2020| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

Today it’s the hummingbirds that save me.

Not because I see one. Because I don’t.

Every year, the broad-tailed hummingbirds

arrive at our feeders the third week of April.

This year, they’ve yet to arrive.

How many other joys have I been awaiting

that are yet to materialize?

It is hard to spend a life waiting, and yet

this one impatience I meet with trust.

Every year, there are hummingbirds.

They return. And when they come,

we’ll feed them. We’ll admire their furious

wings. We’ll forget they were late.

We’ll delight in their curious hum.

 

Read Full Post »

Fifteen Years Later, I See How It Went

Posted in Uncategorized on April 23, 2020| 12 Comments »

 

 

 

They say you fall in love with your child

the moment you first hold them,

the cord just cut, still covered in blood

and vernix. I held the strange being

just arrived from the womb and felt curious,

astonished, humble, nervous, but I didn’t feel love.

That didn’t come till later. Came from holding him

while he was screaming. Waking with him

when I wanted to sleep. Bouncing him

when I wanted to be still. Love grew as

my ideas of myself diminished. Love grew

as he came into himself. Love grew

as I learned to let go of what I’d been told

and to trust the emerging form.

Until I couldn’t imagine being without him.

Until I was the one being born.

Read Full Post »

Song of Touch

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 22, 2020| 4 Comments »

 

 

The world wants to be touched—

thin spikes of grass push up to bare soles,

the near weightless of the paper wasp nest

graces the open palms.

Cool earth crumbles between fingers.

Onion starts celebrate smoothness.

The chill rush of the river.

The comforting heat held in south facing cliffs.

The cactus spine was made

to prove how sharp it is.

The thorn bush tugs on the legs because it can.

And I, though I can be pricklesome,

I, too, long to be held, to be cradled,

to be kissed. I long to know myself

through the hands and lips of you,

the way the piano is most itself

when it’s touched, the way

bread becomes bread

when kneaded.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »