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
Posts Tagged ‘connection’
Perception
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, connection, flowers, poem, poetry, wild iris on June 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Ode to Tears
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, poem, poetry, tears on June 7, 2019| Leave a Comment »
The way day doesn’t fight
the dim before night. The way
shore does not resist the river’s rise.
The way air does not refuse
the beat of wing—that’s the way
I want to let tears come.
Why do I try to force
them from falling?
Not that it works anyway.
Still, this defiance, this struggle
to appear unmoved. And why?
When there are children who laugh
and a sky that blues and stories
that break us and laughter that
seizes us? Why try to pretend
we are not changed by the way
a child loves her mother or
a friend perseveres through cancer
or the way a math teacher reminds us we have
86,400 seconds a day to spend
and if we don’t spend them,
they are gone. It is logical to weep
when met with beauty, it is practical
to let the tears release instead
of all this stupid pretending that
we are too cool or too smart or too
sophisticated to be stirred.
No, better to notice when our toes
are dipped in the grand stream
that unites us all and let that water
move right through our eyes—
better not to try to explain it.
Better to wade in the course of tears
and refuse any boat that would keep us
from touching the water. After all,
we know how to swim. After all,
there are so many reasons
to give in to who we are.
If I Can’t Be There
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, friendship, love, poem, poetry on May 4, 2019| 2 Comments »
And if you should find yourself
in the parking lot of tears,
then I will knit you a handkerchief
of poems—they won’t stop
the crying, but then you
will never weep alone—
every tear a chance to connect,
every tear a chance
to fall deeper in love.
One Tuning
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, music, poem, poetry, tension on March 12, 2019| 2 Comments »
Another Lesson in Impermanence
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, conversation, death, friendship, impermanence, poem, poetry on March 8, 2019| Leave a Comment »
A metal table in the sun. Beyond it, winter.
Two women sit, brought here by rambling.
One woman weeps, tears of mortality.
The other woman rhymes with her.
Everything rhymes eventually, though
neither of them know it yet. The grass.
The snow. The dirt. The way the two women lean
into shadows. It’s not that time makes demands,
it’s just that the women still see themselves
as separate. They grasp at the present,
thinking this makes them a part of it.
Meanwhile, the birds. Meanwhile,
the trees. Meanwhile, the cells, changing.
Meanwhile the sun slides down the sky.
Every Time
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged books, connection, poem, poetry, reading on February 3, 2019| 5 Comments »
and after the lights were out
and after my mother had kissed me goodnight
I would pull from under my pillow
the book, the flashlight, and for hours
in the quiet house, no matter how difficult
the day had been, no matter how low I felt,
for those hours I was so glad to be alive
in someone else’s story, and every time,
when I when I tugged long enough on its lines,
I could not help but notice
how each story was my story, too.
One Missed Invitation
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, gratitude, parenting, poem, poetry on December 19, 2018| 2 Comments »
stepping into your heart
surprised to find a large empty chair
with my name on it—
in the dust, I write thank you,
then curl in
One Art
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, joy, poem, poetry, room on December 16, 2018| 2 Comments »
for Sherry
in a time of thorns
finding the smallest joy—
making a room in it
big enough
we can all slip in
On a Day When the Sky Is So Blue, So Clear
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, poem, poetry, sky on September 26, 2018| 2 Comments »
I imagine writing a one-line poem
long enough to reach you—
imagine how the words might quiver
in the wind, how I might climb
their serifs like a thin-runged ladder
and follow the words
to you like breadcrumbs,
like footprints, like hope.
Synapse
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged brain, connection, memory, neurons, poem, poetry, synapse on August 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »
We are perhaps like neurons
that never touch—
but that doesn’t stop
the chemical buzz,
the lightning charge,
the electric thrill
that leaps the gap—
and in that span
all meaning is made,
long red ropes of memory
twisting and knotting,
braiding, unbraiding,
and nothing
is ever the same.
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