The heart
is perhaps
more bonsai
than redwood—
constrained
by the size
of its container—
still, it branches,
it grows,
learns to thrive
inside,
no less
remarkable,
no less
evergreen.
Posts Tagged ‘heart’
Scale
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bonsai, evergreen, heart, scale, tree on January 8, 2021| 5 Comments »
A Little Pep Talk
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged endings, heart, letting go, transformation on December 9, 2020| 2 Comments »
The swirling ash
doesn’t try
to be become
log again.
The flying leaves
don’t attempt
to return
to the tree.
The girl
can’t untwist
her genome
back into
separate strands.
The flour
in the bread
can’t return
to the sack,
can’t undo
the kneading
of hands.
In all things
lives a memory
of letting go
and the chance
to transform
into what
it can’t know.
What do you say
to that, heart?
Good self,
what do you say
to that?
As You Have Done for Me
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, friendship, heart, treasure, value on December 2, 2020| 10 Comments »
There is treasure in you.
—Joi Sharp
If you were here
I would put my hand
on your heart
and hold it there
until our breaths
became a single tide,
hold it there until
I could feel the moment
when you remember
your infinite value.
It’s so easy to forget
we are treasure.
So easy to lose track
of our own immeasurable worth.
The chest rusts shut.
We think we are empty.
Amazing how easily
we are fooled into believing
we’re paupers.
Sometimes it takes another
to remind us
we have always been
not only the treasure
but also the key.
Though the hinges
are a metaphor,
the treasure is not.
We were made to open,
to share our priceless gift,
to press our hands
to each other’s hearts
and hold them there
until we all remember.
Stubborn
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged brain, healing, heart, path, stubbornness on October 13, 2020| 4 Comments »
When the brain is separated from the heart, it is capable of doing terrible things to each other and the planet.
—Jane Goodall
And so I try to tend the path each day
between brain and heart.
Whatever smallnesses I trip on,
I try to remember to bow as I remove them.
Whatever weeds try to overrun it—
weeds of should and shame—
I try to yank them out, knowing full well
I never get the whole root.
The more I travel the path,
the easier it is—
though steep sometimes,
and the effort to go on
makes me weep.
And sometimes, it feels unfamiliar,
though I’m sure I’ve travelled this way before.
Frightened, lost, tired, exposed—
yet I try to find and preserve the path.
Because the stakes are too high
when the path is gone.
Because the healing is so great
when I honor the path
step by stubborn step.
Endurance
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged endurance, heart, love, patience on September 3, 2020| Leave a Comment »
In the middle of my heart
is a meadow with tall golden grass
and a big blue blanket
spread out like an invitation.
I never fold it up.
Not ever.
It is always the right time
to meet you there.
The light is always golden.
The air is always sweet.
Even when I ache.
Even when my heart
ticks in my chest,
not like a clock,
like a bomb.
Library Cardiac
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged books, heart, library on August 1, 2020| 1 Comment »
In the library of my heart
are thousands of slim volumes.
There are no rules
against dog earring pages.
Writing in margins
is encouraged.
There are many comfy chairs,
sage and amethyst rugs,
and surprisingly tall ceilings
with ladders for reaching
the highest shelves.
Dust never collects here,
the cream candles never burn out,
though sometimes
a chapter or two is lost
and no one notices.
It smells of vanilla
and lavender and old paper.
It smells of autumns
and moonlight and loss.
Is it any wonder
I sometimes go days
without leaving here?
But sometimes,
though I have in my hand
the key to get in,
I just can’t find the door.
One Comfort
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged heart, overwhelm on July 10, 2020| 1 Comment »
Remedy
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged heart, medicine, music, song on February 16, 2020| 2 Comments »
Not tea, not pills,
not herbs, not tinctures,
not creams, not salts,
not drops, not injections—
what the heart needs
tonight is a song
so true that its cells rhyme
themselves with the beat.
Tonight, the only medicine
this tired heart needs
is to listen.
One Near a Mud Puddle
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aging, heart, love, poem, poetry on September 14, 2019| 2 Comments »
The Scientists at Yale are Wondering
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birds, evolution, heart, poem, poetry, science on August 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »
They know that birds see many more colors
than humans can—and they know that
their plumage has become, over millions of years,
more colorful, more dazzling, more bright.
But why, they wonder, can the birds see
colors they do not have in their feathers?
Why haven’t they developed the ability
to produce ultraviolet yellow or ultraviolet red?
I know that there is beauty I see in others
that I do not yet see in myself: People
who leave bottles of water in the desert
of west Texas. A 94-year-old man in Iowa
who has given away 6,000 Hershey’s
milk chocolate bars to connect
with the people in his changing hometown.
A 13-year-old girl who has raised $80,000
to save dogs from being euthanized.
A woman who chooses forgiveness.
I want to believe that to see is to invite evolution.
I want to believe that through sight, my own heart will develop
the way plumage might, more dazzling, more bright.