Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for February, 2021

Imagine

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 28, 2021| 1 Comment »


driving south
through the mountains
watching the moonrise—
 
and around each corner,
thrilling as it rises again, again, again,
feeling luckier each time—
 
meeting the self
like that

Read Full Post »

One Irrational Fear

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on February 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »




inside this trembling woman
her own shadow
wildly distorted, flexing

Read Full Post »

On a Full Moon Night

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 27, 2021| 2 Comments »




The three-note song of the owl
opens the night
with a single repeated note.
Hoo hoo hoo.

Listening for the song again,
I find myself opening to silence.
Then there it is:
Hoo hoo hoo.

Scientists say
the owl is sending a message:
This is mine,
my territory, my space.
But instead of being repelled,
I’m pulled in.

I sing back to the owl
three resonant notes.
Hoo hoo hoo.
Not to stake my territory.
More out of admiration
for the power of a simple song.

It teaches me to trust
what is artless,
how sometimes simplicity
is what allows others, like me,
to sing along.

Read Full Post »

Saying Yes

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »



 
 
And could I, like this picture frame
hold any image I was given?
I think of the news last night—
how I would rather not hold
what I saw there.
I think of what I learned just yesterday
about myself and notice how
I would rather push the image away.
But could I be like this picture frame
that will hold anything and in so doing
honor its importance? Honor
everything, no matter how mundane,
no matter how frightening,
as something worth knowing,
something essential to what it means to be alive,
a soup can, perhaps, a petunia, or a scream.
How easily the frame says yes to the world,
takes it in, anything, with no judgement,
and offers it whatever beauty it has.
 

Read Full Post »

Why Choose Tenderness: A Cinepoem

Posted in Uncategorized on February 25, 2021| 2 Comments »

This beautiful video was created by the incomparable Holiday Mathis. Demand that your local newspaper carry her spot-on, inspired and inspiring horoscopes if it doesn’t yet already.

Read Full Post »

Daily First Step

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »



 
 
Every morning before I rise,
I crawl into my body, as if,
inside this grown woman
lives an infant still learning
what it is to be in a body,
what it is to move forward,
certain there is a world
I want to wobble my way through,
run through, even dance,
if only I can first find a way
to stand in it.
 

Read Full Post »

Listening to the Wind on Mars, I Consider the Unsaid

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 23, 2021| 3 Comments »




Just because I can’t hear the wind on Mars
without the sound being raised two octaves
doesn’t mean the Martian wind wouldn’t open a sail—
doesn’t mean it wouldn’t blow off my hat
or fly my kite or create thick swirls of red dust.

Just because I could barely hear the wind on Mars
with my human ears doesn’t mean
the wind wouldn’t flip up my skirt. So many forces
just beyond our senses have powerful effect—
like the words that just today I didn’t hear you say,

yet I know by the way my skin shivers they’re true.
I know, just as sure as the wind blows on Mars,
it takes just one gust to make a thousand seeds go flying.
And I am a weed with ten thousand seeds.
And those words I didn’t hear today, they’re the wind.

Read Full Post »

Tempted by Comparison

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 23, 2021| 2 Comments »


 
 
Today I know the self
as a stone in the stream—
everything around me rushing and quickening,
and me, a way to mark all this moving.
Amidst all the bubble and rush,
a stone has its own very slow journey,
and yet, there is no doubt
the stone belongs, is doing
exactly what a stone should do—
which is to be true to its stone-ness,
to know itself as a traveler, yes,
but also as an integral part of the path,
a model of consistency, seldom
in a hurry, inclined to show up
exactly where it is.

Read Full Post »

On Days When the World Seems Stingy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 22, 2021| 7 Comments »


            —for Augusta Kantra
 
 
I remember that day when Augusta and I
stood beneath the satsuma tree at her front gate
and pulled dozens of bright orange spheres
from the branches, filled a basket to brimming,
and still the tree was weighted with fruit.
 
I remember how easily the leather skin peeled away,
the way I always wish an orange might peel.
I remember the juicy sweet flesh—sweeter
than most citrus. I remember it was seedless,
a surprise generosity. And the colder it is,
the sweeter the satsuma will grow.
 
But most of all, I remember Augusta—
her love-ripened smile, her sunny chatter,
her contagious gratitude
for the tree, the fruit, the scent of soft rain, the day.
 
I remember how she thrilled to share with me
something I’d never known before,
how she handed me my first satsuma—
her palm upright, extended,
and in it a small proof of abundant goodness
just waiting to be opened.
 

Read Full Post »

Why It Matters What We Say

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 21, 2021| 2 Comments »


 
 My tears mingle with yours and the dry world is watered again.
            —Jude Janett
 
 
Parched and dusty,
the inner desert
forgets it was once a wetland.
Barren of confidence,
arid with self-disdain,
it forgets how to grow things
not covered in thorns
and spines.
 
Then you with your love
reach across the afternoon,
a brief shower of words,
and the whole inner world
remembers how it is to be lush,
to be nurturing, to be green.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »