Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, flower, poem, poetry, surrender on August 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »
A flower in the field
is always changed by rain.
It is never indifferent
to sun. Even the slightest
of breezes will bend it,
will rearrange. An ant
walks through its center—
now so much more is possible.
It never pretends
to be unaffected by the world.
I have so much to learn
from the flowers of the field,
how they never turn their backs—
they don’t even have backs.
How they withstand hail
and flood and snow and chill
and still, they bloom,
they spill seeds, they
bring all the beauty they can.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, poem, poetry, thoughts, weeds on July 30, 2019| 2 Comments »
in my thoughts
a tap-rooted weed
sometimes I notice
its beautiful pink blooms
before I pull it again
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, connection, flowers, poem, poetry, wild iris on June 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »
beside the floodplain
acre after acre of pale blue
thousands of wild iris—
just thinking of sharing them
they become (is it possible?)
yes, more beautiful
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, flowers, pansies, poem, poetry, resilience on May 5, 2019| 2 Comments »
For though it is cold and bitter,
you raise your bright faces
and radiate loveliness—
as if to prove what is delicate
can thrive in adversity.
There is so much chill,
and sometimes I forget
I can meet bitterness with softness—
I think I, too, must learn
to speak the language of sharp.
But you, pansies, purple and yellow,
white and maroon, you remind me
that softness can be resilient,
that one small beauty
changes everything—
and if today we are able to shine,
despite cold, despite callousness,
then shamelessly, splendidly
let us shine.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, poem, poetry, source on March 15, 2019| 2 Comments »
the deep field of snow
with its crystals and diamonds
turns to mud
and the stem of purple orchids
drops its blooms
until it is only stem
and we, too, rearrange
and become not beauty
but its source
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, mirror, poem, poetry, reflection on December 21, 2018| 2 Comments »
We are the dust that sings.
—Art Goodtimes
She has learned not to trust the mirror.
When she is not near it, she’s beautiful.
Here, in firelight, she knows herself
as one of many stems in an enormous
bouquet, all of them lovely. And in moonlight,
she shines along with the rest of the shining world.
And in the longest night, she is the dust
that dances, dust that sings, dust that knows beauty
everywhere it looks, inside, outside.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, ice, inner child, parenting, poem, poetry, winter on November 26, 2018| 2 Comments »
See, I want to say to my son. See
how the pond has frozen in thick,
continuous curves. See all the lines,
how they ring each other, like dozens
of tiny orbits. I want to show him
the marvel of it all, but he is too old
now for marvels, or perhaps too young,
the precise age where beauty is boring.
And so I take the child of myself to the pond
and show her the rings. I resist the urge
to explain how the meltwater formed them,
how surface-tension forces make liquid melt
cling against the lower parts of the ice.
Instead, I let her gaze at the miracle,
trace the concentric bands with her fingers.
How curious the rings are, like frozen halos
that fit enormous angels. How astonishing
in their design. Just wait till I show her
we can walk on it, too. I let her amazement
become my own, our feet slipping
across the smooth surface, our breath
rising in white ephemeral curls.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, flower, opposites, poem, poetry, thorn on November 3, 2018| Leave a Comment »
You think it’s so much better to be petal,
pink flower, the perfumed bloom that lures
the bee. You with your flutter and blush.
Not all of us can be soft. Not all of us
can be beauty, and you have that role
all wrapped up. You with your tender buds,
your loveliness splayed. But I was not
made that way. Was made prick. Was
made barbed. Was made snappish
and piercing and sharp. Was made
fierce. Was made lance. Was made
to take no chances with survival.
There is glory in defense. Everything
that touches me remembers. I’m the one
that defines the scene. How would you know
your beauty without me?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, daughter, mother, poem, poetry, saint francis and the sow on September 18, 2018| 2 Comments »
after Saint Francis and the Sow by Galway Kinnell
And when my daughter
runs to greet me, charges
me with joy, I am like
the great thick sow Saint Francis blessed
with his touch. For though
I look in the mirror
and see only what I wish to change,
my daughter sees differently
and bulldozes me with love,
a ferocious blessing,
reteaching me in a vigorous rush
that there is something
beautiful here, though
she wouldn’t name it as such—
and a small remembering
takes root in me and
vines throughout my thoughts,
and I flower there in blue surprise,
my own soil, again, enough.
