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Posts Tagged ‘breath’

Blustery

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 3, 2024| 4 Comments »

for Corinne


Into the wind, the whipping
wind, the fierce, tempestuous,
mighty wind, we skied
as it pushed us and
bent us and slapped us
in a language made wholly
of howl—how alive we were,
laughing into the gale,
taking the storm into our lungs,
as if our breath could learn
its syntax, translate
its tongues of gust and squall
into wild, untamable mirth.
This is how we carried the storm
home in our bloodstream.           
This is how, even now,
I feel it in my lips,
an uncontrollable, reckless smile.

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In This Tender Silence

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on December 5, 2023| 2 Comments »


Offer your beauty always without calculation or defense.
            —Rainer Maria Rilke, “Initial,” trans. Mark S. Burrows
 
 
Oh friend, it’s true. These dark hours
can crumple us, can press.
No way to escape their crush.
How merciless it can be,
the fist of grief,
how strong the squeeze,
how difficult to believe
we’ll survive.
 
Today, it is enough
to offer the world
only the simplest song—
the wordless, tuneless
song of beingness.
How beautiful it is,
this offering,
your breath against my cheek.

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One Sacredness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 10, 2023| 7 Comments »

 
an altar for wonder—
that small pause
before you speak

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One Peacefulness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on January 1, 2023| 8 Comments »

so quietly this new year
slips through midnight—
our breath the most precious of cheers

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One Translation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on December 9, 2022| 2 Comments »

tide of your breath
the only poem
I need

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The Mother Stands in the Doorway

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2022| 12 Comments »

Because you are gone,
I will never again stand
in your doorway and listen
to the sound of your breath
as you sleep.
I can remember the way
it used to calm me—
the slow, even rhythm
that proved you were alive.
I used to laugh at myself.
As if you wouldn’t be alive.
How farfetched it felt,
the idea of your death.
Now, I hear the absence
of your breath everywhere—
everywhere is a doorway
where I find you are not.
And so I listen.

Sometimes it seems as if a silence
is breathing me,
and somehow, you live in that silence.
I don’t know how it works.
I only know that since you are gone,
sometimes listening feels like communion.
Sometimes when I am very quiet,
when there is no sound at all,
I hear you say nothing.
It’s everything.

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Why I Take Deep Breaths

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 25, 2021| 6 Comments »




In this deep sea of grief,
it is hard to trust
my own buoyancy—
great waves break on me,
take my breath away,
I’m submerged by loss,
yet with so little effort
I rise. Just by being alive,
I rise. So I splutter.
So I’m graceless.
So I cannot see the shore.
But my friend reminds me,
there’s no way
that I can do this wrong.
So I let myself be carried
by currents unknown,
and each time I breathe—
I feel myself rise.
With so little effort,
I rise.

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With the Stars All Around

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 4, 2021| 5 Comments »




I wish you the peace of sleep,
your breath a canoe
that carries you
toward the next moment
without any need
for you to touch the oars.
How easily you arrive.

Oh, to trust the world like that—
trust you will be carried,
not just in sleep,
but in waking dreams,
trust no matter how high the waves,
the skiff of grace
has a seat for you.
And oh, to let go of the oars—
there is no steering
toward what comes next.

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One Distant

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »



wide awake I listen
for the sounds of you sleeping
across the world

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Identity Check

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 6, 2021| 2 Comments »




When they asked
for my identity card
I looked in my purse
and found someone else’s.
And someone else’s.
And someone else’s.
But not mine.
But it’s me, I said.
I turned to my friends
so they could vouch for me,
but their word was not enough
to prove I was myself.
When I woke,
I leaned deeper
into my being, my breath
giving me what no card,
no word could do.
Even the flesh is a trick.
Oh, how the morning shines.

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