playing chess with myself—
always my two queens at odds,
with every move, I lose, I win
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged balance, chess, inner turmoil, poem, poetry on January 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »
playing chess with myself—
always my two queens at odds,
with every move, I lose, I win
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged balance, falling, poem, poetry, wings on August 19, 2015| 4 Comments »
Let’s say you’re carrying a priceless bowl
overflowing with fruits and flowers,
and let’s say you’re balancing it on your head.
And let’s say you’re on a high wire.
And let’s say the wire is above the falls.
And let’s say it’s electrical.
And let’s say it’s about to come unplugged.
Let’s say you’re in the middle.
What is it that inspires you
to do these crazy things?
Regardless, Now’d be the right time to learn
how to use those enormous wings,
those wings you’ve pretended not to have—
that you hid because, who knows why?
We all fall sometime from the high wire act,
but some of us learn to fly.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged balance, falling, poem, poetry, poetry friends, Rachel Kellum, rocks on June 1, 2012| 5 Comments »
She does not choose
the flat rocks, the ones
that might stack like bricks.
She chooses a slender volume
of gray sandstone, rounded
to a point on one side,
and balances it on the beach,
point side up. The next rock
is also a misshapen thing … not
at all a likely candidate
for balancing, much less on its edge,
but with gentle fingers
Rachel sets it on its knobbed
end and moves her hands away.
It is not at all straightforward.
What balances, balances
through patience and some odd grace,
and Rachel adds an egg shaped oval
rock into the notch at the top and backs away.
The pile miraculously stands.
Though I try to turn my mind
toward metaphors for love,
there is nothing to get here
except the pleasure of sitting
beside the river, the hatch
catching in our hair, stacking rocks
one on top of the other, one unlikely
sweet spot at a time before they all
fall down.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged balance, blossoming, Erika Gordon, friendship, growing, poems, poetry, potential, yoga on March 25, 2012| 5 Comments »
Erika on the red mat
tucks her right foot in her groin
and bends forward from the waist
then lowers till she’s hovering
above her left tippy toes.
If you can’t follow
what I’m saying, that’s
because her body’s twisted,
furled and folded as a body seldom is.
But full of grace,
she brings her hands
to meet in prayer in front of her
and for a minute poises there,
a compact bulb with five small roots
and a patient shoot waiting
to push up and through.
It’s beautiful to stand beside
Erika on the red mat
to feel more than see
the rising energy as like
a tulip in the spring
she reaches not just up
but into the quiet balance point
where anything can happen.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged balance, chalice, gratitude, grief, haiku, unity on December 13, 2011| 1 Comment »