for S & J
I want to give you something
necessary as rain and lasting as honey,
something useful as a spoon,
something helpful as wheels.
Sometimes it feels so inadequate
to offer you a poem, a prayer,
the small light of a candle,
a hammock woven only of blessings.
Still, as you meet these difficult hours
I wish you the peace of the amber field,
wish you the rose quartz of dawn.
Because it’s what I can do, I offer you poems,
prayers, the small flame of a candle, and
a hammock of blessings woven with dark, with light.
Posts Tagged ‘blessing’
What I Can Offer
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, healing, love on September 12, 2022| 11 Comments »
So Alive
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, garden, lettuce, summer on August 21, 2022| 6 Comments »
After a late summer rain,
when the low sun shines
through the still-dripping world,
I walk in the garden and slip my hands
into the lettuce rows,
easily pulling up small green heads,
the leaves not yet bitter and tough.
Oh, the beauty of things in their prime.
Soon enough, the snow will be here,
the garden a drift of white.
No way to preserve this green for winter,
so I take it into me, dirt and all,
stuffing the leaves into my mouth.
I take in the green and the diamonding dew,
take in the golden light,
take in the sound of the river
and the growing shadows.
There are moments I understand
what blessing is. In this moment,
it looks exactly like what is.
Blessings, Blessings
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, humanness on July 3, 2021| 4 Comments »
Believing it matters,
today I bless all that seems unable to grow.
I bless the stems of larkspur
broken in yesterday’s storm.
I bless the broken. Bless those in pain.
Bless all who feel as if they are drowning
in the ache of aloneness and betrayal.
I have felt the wide blessing of sky,
cold blessing of rain, green blessing of field,
I have felt the dark, sharp blessing of loss.
How it’s changed me.
For all I cannot fix, I bless it.
For all I cannot hold, cannot heal, cannot mend,
blessings, blessings, impossible blessings,
tender blessings, blessings
mighty as wildfire,
blessings as gentle
as tears.
Why We Smile
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, eulogy, friendship, Ivar Eidsmo, nordic skiing, smile on June 27, 2021| 2 Comments »
For Ivar
Today as we gently
spread mountain dirt
on your ashes
I think of
that snow blown day
three years ago
when we
at two below
were laughing
at how cold
we were and
how sticky
our skis.
It amazes me
how out of
bleakness
comes blessing.
To this day
your smile—
crooked
and wide as the mesa
we stood on—
still warms me,
your real smile
the only part
of that long cold race
I remember.
Side Blessings
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, bonus, free, rubber band on May 1, 2021| 2 Comments »
I save every
rubber band—
thick purple ones
from broccoli,
asparagus, leeks,
and the thin blue ones
used to keep berries
from spilling.
I could never throw away
a rubber band—
stretchy bonuses
thrown in for free.
Perhaps it’s strange
to call them blessings—
but I thrill in side benefits.
Like a talented new friend
hardwired for forgiveness.
Like the swooping choreography
of swallows that helps them
to eat biting flies.
Like how red wine is rich
with antioxidants.
Like a newspaper
filled with bad news,
but delivered with a useful,
flexible, rubber band.
Small Gratitudes
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, gratitude, poem, poetry on October 10, 2019| 2 Comments »
It was one of those days when the alarm
didn’t go off, and we woke anyway
to a world covered in snow, and
by noon the sky was blue. And I drove
right through the construction zone
without being stopped by a flagger.
The tomato for breakfast was ripe
and sharp and sweet. And the tea
was strong and black. The radio
played only songs I wanted to sing.
My car started. I had no flat tires.
I never felt sick. Never fell. More blessings,
it turns out, than a woman can count, though
I try to count them all. And the more
I remember—a good friend called, all
ten fingers are intact, my eyes still
see across the room—yes,
the more blessings I consider, the more
my joy grows until I am dumbfounded,
gobsmacked by gratitude that’s exactly
the size of the known universe, amazed by
how perfectly it fits—as if I were made for this—
right inside my skin.
After a Day of Blessings Great and Small
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, gratitude, poem, poetry on May 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Sometimes gratitude rises in us
like snowmelt—as if some great cold
has met with stubborn warmth
and now the whole world
roars with the transformation.
And sometimes gratitude
touches us more like moonlight,
we can’t truly feel it, but we know
it is there, our being
no longer intimidated by the dark.
Beyond Wishing
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blessing, fear, poem, poetry on May 6, 2016| 1 Comment »
And when there is fear,
then let us be flowers
unashamed of our blooming,
and let us be rivers undammed.
And when there is loss,
then let us be leaves that surrender to death
and give even more in life.
And when there is ache,
let’s unfold like dawn in layers
and layers of ripening pink,
let’s be bells
that ring only love.
And when there is sorrow,
let us be dark wings
that gather the light,
and let us be the light.
Autumnal
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged autumn, blessing, losing the self, loss, poem, poetry on September 9, 2015| 1 Comment »
after William Stafford
When the leaves are about to yellow and fall
ask me then how I tried to hold on to what was green,
how I thought perhaps I was different,
how everything I thought I knew about gold
turned brittle and brown. Ask me what it was like
to fall then. Sometimes the world becomes invisible
and we know ourselves as the world. Sometimes
the only words that can find our lips are thank you,
though the gifts look nothing like anything
we ever thought we wanted.
Very, Very Quietly
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awe, blessing, bliss, poem, poetry, sky on October 26, 2013| 3 Comments »
I did not choose
awe today, but the big
pink sky chose me
and steeped me
in fantastic joy—
a drenching of miracle,
an overdose of amazement,
a wild indulgence of bliss—
oh such pink! layers
of rose and deeper rose,
and I did not earn it,
did not first prove my worthiness,
did not beg nor kneel nor fast
nor renounce my name
nor pull the strings
of the lyre nor sing,
all I had to do
was step outside
out of my own way
and open my eyes
and let myself
be gifted.