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.
Cardiac Library
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.
I Cried to Dream Again
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged betrayal, caliban, heart, love, poem, poetry, shakespeare, the tempest on July 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »
title from William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III, Scene II
I have a Caliban locked in my heart,
a child of the moon. He reminds me sometimes
of all the beautiful places he’s shown me—
the heart’s clear springs and its riches.
How we loved each other then.
There was a time he would offer
to lick my shoes. There was a time
I would follow him everywhere.
I invited him to sleep in my sheets.
I would rub his wild scruff till he purred.
I poured him my best wine in my best glass.
I sang him to sleep. There are some betrayals
we will never forgive. Or so
we tell ourselves. Now he is insolent.
Now I’ve built walls. Now he’s rebellious.
Now I’m master I’d rather not be.
It was so much more wonderful then
when we were friends, when I trusted him
and delighted in the most primal parts of me.
And though I lock him up now, he reminds me
through his cage of the sweet airs of the heart
and the music inside us that longs to be obeyed.
Despite the News
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged faith, heart, opening, poem, poetry, rain on May 17, 2019| 3 Comments »
Again the rain,
and I wander
the tender green grass
of the field.
The hands pull weeds
because the hands
want something to do.
And the mind looks
for morels, because the mind
wants something to do.
And the feet wander,
because they are born
nomads. And the heart
opens. Not because
it wants to, but
because there is something
in the scent of rain
that suggests
so much is possible,
even, against all odds,
beauty. Even, though
it seems impossible,
another day.
One Scratched Up
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged compassion, goldfinch, heart, heartache, poem, poetry, thorns on May 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »
goldfinch stealing
into the thorn bush—
oh heart, bless you
for being willing, please
don’t follow him in
One Wild Ride
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged boat, heart, love, poem, poetry, river on April 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Taking Things as They Are
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged heart, love, o'keefe, perception, poem, poetry on November 18, 2018| 4 Comments »
Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned, — not to see what is not.
—Maria Mitchell, pioneering astronomer
Give me eyes that see only what is,
eyes not fooled by veils, by scars.
Give me ears that hear only the words that are said,
ears that clearly translate silence.
But give me a heart that feels into
what is possible, a heart that believes
in goodness, despite reports
from ears, from eyes. Give
me a heart that speaks only love,
that leans toward kindness, that opens
again and again like an O’Keefe petunia—
larger than anticipated, mind stopping,
soul rousing, haloed by wonder
and wholly true to itself.
One Bewilderment
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged heart, opening, poem, poetry on November 7, 2018| 2 Comments »
my heart a red fist,
beating, intent on self-protection
when, despite itself,
it opens, astonished, to find
it’s a peony, a sunrise, a wing
Arrangement
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged heart, love, mandolin, music, poem, poetry, practice on August 9, 2018| 4 Comments »
In my heart, a mandolin
just waiting to be played—
there are music sheets,
ignore them. Doesn’t matter
if you know how to play.
What matters is you try.
What matters is you practice
tuning the strings
until you find the way
to make them sing.
What matters is that
we both know there’s
music in there just waiting
to be found and
your hands are curious,
tender.
One Renewal
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged connection, heart, poem, poetry on June 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »
One Desolation
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged answer, heart, poem, poetry, question on May 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I make in my heart a nest for the questions,
ask them to stay, and at the same time
post a sign that says
answers only—
no wonder they fly away.
One Really About the Heart
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged heart, perspective, poem, poetry, toe on March 30, 2018| 1 Comment »