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Posts Tagged ‘marriage’

The Partners

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 4, 2024| 10 Comments »

 
After thirty years, she knows
he will speak with his mouth full.
 
He knows her stomach will gurgle
in the silence before they sleep.
 
He will set the table.
She will water the plants.
 
He will wash the windows.
She will dust the piano.
 
After thirty years, she still thrills
when he sits close on the couch
 
and rests his head on her shoulder,
then sighs aloud and closes his eyes.
 
She loves when the moment lasts.
In the mornings, he will look at the clouds
 
and tell her the direction of the wind,
what it means about the storm.
 
She will walk up to him with open arms
and hold him there, in the middle
 
of the kitchen. There will be no music.
It may look as if they are standing still,
 
but it’s part of a long and intricate dance,
a dance they are still learning,
 
a dance no one else can teach them.
See how they step back, how they spin,
 
how they step in toward each other again.

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Wordlessly

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 27, 2023| 12 Comments »

 
With such gentleness,
he stood behind me
and held me as I wept,
held me the way a pond holds a lotus,
the way a scarf holds perfume,
the way a man who has lost his child
holds the mother of the child,
his hands so light on my hands
as our fingers laced into a tender weave,
held me the way the pericardium holds the heart,
the way the eye holds a tear
then lets it slip away.

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The Long Marriage

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 6, 2022| 14 Comments »




Perhaps I know you best in the dark—
that nightly shrine
where my belly meets your spine,
where the bend of my knees
meets the bend of your knees,
where my warmth meets your warmth,
the night a vase
in which we place
the stems of our bodies,
in which I know myself
through touch.
And nothing must be said
and nothing must be done
except to meet the long familiar flesh,
this honoring of nakedness.

Perhaps I know you best in the dark—
these lightless hours when
we sit in the midst of brokenness
and my hand finds your hand,
and my silence finds your silence,
my loss finds your loss,
and together, somehow,
we find peace.
And nothing can be said.
And nothing can be done
to change the past.
We meet in the these darkened hours,
with nothing but our willingness
to meet these darkened hours,
these hours we would have pushed away,
these hours that bring us closer to each other.







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Contact Joy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 1, 2022| 10 Comments »




He cleans the base of the skis
with a fine, steel brush to remove
the old wax, his body swaying
above the ski, tip to tail, tip to tail,
so the micro hairs on the base
will lay down in the direction of travel
on snow. A fine copper brush
cleans it more. His movements
are quick, precise, a dance
that now comes naturally.
The only music is the sound
of the brushes, the sound
of his breath. There is no
laughter, no joking,
not even a smile, but
sometimes on winter nights
I walk toward the light
in the garage and watch
his body intent on its work,
and I feel the quiet joy
he finds in preparation
and the work of foundation,
and his joy seeps into me,
soft as the darkness
that holds the garage,
deep as the space
that holds us all.

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One at the Confluence

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 16, 2018| 2 Comments »

for Amy and Devin

 

 

two rivers

become one water—

sound of ten thousands hands clapping

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Dear Abby Offers Advice to the Newly Weds on Halloween

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

 

every pumpkin knows

you need just enough air

for the candle to burn,

just enough shelter

to keep the flame alive

 

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One Silver Split Key Ring

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 8, 2016| 3 Comments »

 

            a found poem

 

 

mom, she says,

I found this ring I’m wearing

on the ground—

do you think it means

the world and I are married?

 

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Just Before Our Twentieth Anniversary

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 16, 2015| 4 Comments »

He knows how to read the coming weather

from the direction of the wind.

He knows from the shape of the clouds

when the storm will start.

All I knew, when I met him,

was that I wanted our love to last forever.

I did not understand what forever meant.

Nor did I know much about love,

though I thought I did.

I am not so better at reading the heart,

but I do know, watching him watch the sky,

that twenty some years is not enough

and that love is what we are here to share

and that after seeing all those mare’s tails

this morning, there is a storm a-coming,

and that after some time

the wind will come from the north

and there will be calm after that.

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After Waking

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 1, 2015| 2 Comments »

Beneath our boat

a swimming bear—

I tell myself to be afraid

but I’m too delighted

by its brown body,

elongated and sleek

moving like a wave itself

in the clear, clear water.

A marriage, too,

is a boat. Or is it

the bear?

Or is it the man

and the woman

in the boat,

watching beneath them

the most exquisite

dangerous thing,

something that could kill them

but chooses instead

grace.

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Sometimes I Can Say

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 25, 2015| 2 Comments »

You are my blizzard, my tempest, my hail,
you my cloudless sky.
I learn to say yes to your everywhere
and yes to your nowhere.
Yes to your hawk, your sparrow.
Yes to your desert, your orchards of plums
ripe and fat with sweetness.
Yes to your knives and yes to your blossoms.
Yes to your silence, yes to your growl.
Yes to the part of me that says no.
Yes to the fear of yes.
Yes to your flash flood, yes to your drought.
Yes to the angry red ache and yes to infinite tenderness.
Yes to the walls and the walls falling down.
Yes to the prison, the skeleton key.
Yes to you, yes, I say yes, yes again,
yes to your killing frost,
yes to your warm morning after.

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