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Posts Tagged ‘exhaustion’

Not That I Like It, But I Tell Myself

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2026| 12 Comments »


 
 
It is okay to be numb today, 
to be stuck, to not want to move.
It is okay to be so exhausted
with the ache of meeting the world 
that even the extravagant apple blossoms,
all fragrant and fluttersome, 
look like dingy white scraps, used tissues.
It is necessary, even natural 
to sometimes shut down, 
to let the self be cold. 
The wood frog can freeze 
up to seventy percent of its body water, 
can stop its own heart from beating, 
It knows that to freeze for a season
is one way to survive. 
It will thaw and revive come spring. 
It’s okay for a time to slow down. 
To slow to stopping.
To be more solid than flow. 
I remember the years in the orchard when, 
on the coldest nights, we watered the trees, 
knowing how the process of freezing itself
releases latent heat and becomes
a source of warmth for its surroundings. 
Oh wisdom of freezing. It’s not without cost.
Every fruit grower knows that some years, 
there are no apples. That is how it is.
Other years, we delight in what ripens. 
Those years, we feast on the sweetness.

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One Threadbare

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 20, 2024| 4 Comments »

frayed, this wonder,
the world no less filled
with magnificence

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One Lackluster

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on June 22, 2022| 4 Comments »

ransacking the stars—
surely some of that shine
will stick to me?

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One Interminable

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on June 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »


 
this day—a sentence
that cannot seem to find
its period

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Gravity

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 1, 2020| 6 Comments »

Today it is enough

to pour the orange juice.

To push down the lever

on the toaster.

To feed the fish and the kids

and water the orchid

and return one call.

A woman could be buried

by all the things

she thinks she should do.

It might take her years

to crawl out from beneath that weight.

And so today

I find refuge in the fact

that I made the bed.

That I was a lap

for a cat.

That I caught a mouse

in the carrot row

and I let him go.

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One Exhaustion

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 26, 2020| Leave a Comment »

running and running

but the finish line keeps moving

until at last

the wise voice asks

are you sure this is a race?

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Necessary Respite

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 23, 2020| 7 Comments »

 

 

 

Just today I did not fall in love with the long hallway,

or the faithful radiator or the steadfast brick.

I did not fall in love with a calculator or

 

with lavender soap. I certainly

did not fall for a loyal wooden ladder,

not for a mirror, not for the underappreciated spider,

 

not for a door, no matter how open it was.

So many chances, lost. So many invitations unanswered.

There are days when the heart forgets its work—

 

not out of maliciousness, more perhaps, because

it is tired. These are the days when I hope

that I will remember to sit quietly until

 

once again the heart finds the energy to love itself.

Then it is only a matter of time before it loves again

the red thread, the socks, the chipped blue cup.

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Why Sometimes It’s Best to Pretend You’re Not Home

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 4, 2019| 6 Comments »

They say opportunity knocks, but then
once it’s in, I’ve seen it punch. Explode.
Manhandle. Demand. Require. Kick.
Throttle. Strangle. Rebuke. Erode.

If only it only knocked, perhaps
I’d be more inclined to answer the door,
but sometimes, once in, it takes all you have,
and then, when you’re spent, it takes more.

*Dear Readers … this is just to say that this is NOT the poem I thought I was sitting down to write, but this is the poem that showed up. And any of you who have taken a class with me know that I am a big fan of the dictum of Jack Mueller, Obey the poem’s emerging form. So I did. I think I almost scared myself with this poem. Enough that I thought twice about sending it out. But here it is …

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When My Daughter Asks Me What Is Newton’s First Law of Motion

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 4, 2018| 4 Comments »

 

 

 

And though I can’t remember

what I wrote last night, which seems

like ten years ago, I rattle off,

a body at rest remains at rest and

a body in motion remains in motion

until acted upon by an external force,

and then, mid-sentence, I have some small

fantasy about being a body at rest,

a body at rest that stays at rest, a body

at rest that is somehow entirely unacted upon,

not by breakfast, not by school, not by work,

not by mewling cats or errant bears

traversing the porch, not by nightmares

nor bladder nor hot flash nor chill,

and I think to myself that Newton

was really, really on to something,

some sweet world he posits

that I now long for, a world

where a woman might find

such rest, might be such a body.

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One Trip

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 20, 2016| 4 Comments »

 

 

 

driving the back roads

for so long even my songs

are covered in dust

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