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Posts Tagged ‘numbers’

Walking in New York

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 19, 2022| 2 Comments »




In a city with thirty-thousand restaurants
and three hundred sky scrapers
and thirteen thousand taxis

KC guides us through a garden gate
to the open window
of an old brick church

and greets Father Spencer
in his office. Within a minute
we are sitting in a small paneled room

full of photos and poems
and hands cut out of paper,
and though there are nearly

nine million people
thrumming around us,
for a few quiet moments

his attention makes us feel
as if amidst it all
we count.

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While Helping Mom Calculate Mileage for Her Taxes

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 9, 2022| 8 Comments »

I count all the Tuesdays, Thursdays
and Saturdays from January to mid-July,
all those days in Florida
when you drove an hour
to dialysis and sat there for hours
as the machines removed toxins
and water from your blood,
then drove an hour home.
I multiply that number times
the number of miles and arrive
at a number that means devotion.
Means grit. A number that means
I will live for you as long as I am able.
Remember, Dad, how no matter
how early you had to rise,
no matter how difficult the drive,
no matter how inefficient the process,
you did it. And every time
you thanked the people
who were keeping you alive.
At the end, when you couldn’t stand,
couldn’t sit, couldn’t lift your own arm,
they took you to dialysis on a stretcher.
When they’d move you,
you’d moan in pain, howl, even,
as they twisted your body
in ways it no longer could twist,
and then, with deep humility,
you’d thank the nurses.
Did you ever see them cry, Dad?
I did. I saw them walk out of the room
into the hall and weep,
so grateful to be thanked
for doing the work that hurts.
Two thousand nine hundred ninety miles.
That was the number for six months.
A number that means life is hard and I want it.
A number that says my body is stopping,
but my love grows.
A number that means, Yes, I will meet you, death.
Butnot yet. Not yet.

*
PS–I want to honor that my mom drove my dad many of these times, and many other times in other cities–and she, in such courageous, humble ways, was devoted to dad’s health and healing.

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By the Numbers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on September 9, 2020| 6 Comments »

Then let me measure my life

not in days, not in years,

but in how many sunflowers

grew in my gardens

and how many times

I stopped to notice

how beautiful they were.

Let me measure my life

in lines of poems

that slipped me

more deeply into the world

and in cups of earl gray tea.

Let me grow old

on belly laughs.

Let me know my true age

in kisses. And though

it is a finite number,

let me lose count.

In hug years,

let me be ancient.

In fist years,

let me always be young.

And let me measure my life

in songs that insisted I sing them.

May it equal the number of times

they were sung.

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Poet’s Respond in Rattle!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 14, 2018| 2 Comments »

Hi friends,

 

the poem from a few days ago about the Voyager 2 leaving our heliosphere, “By the Numbers,” was accepted last night by Rattle.com for their series Poets Respond, poems about the news. Here is a link to the text and audio!

 

By the Numbers, Rattle

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