Posted in Uncategorized, tagged challenge, path, poem, poetry, rain on August 3, 2018| 2 Comments »
And let there be rain,
though the path is easier
when dry, and let there be
a bend in the road.
Let us think we know
where we are going—
and let us be wrong.
There are wings in us
we’ve forgotten.
Let us walk until
we remember them.
And then, let us walk
for the joy of walking.
Because puddles.
Because the path.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged lost, path, poem, poetry on June 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Just because we can’t imagine
what it will look like, this path,
doesn’t mean it won’t appear.
Just today, I took a detour
off the interstate when a rolled semi
closed down all the lanes.
The GPS suggested
a back road, which turned
into dirt road, which turned
into dozens of switchbacks,
one hairpin turn after another
rising up and away from the route
I had planned. The GPS died.
No one else going the same way,
which always makes a mind wonder.
Just because we have little idea
where we are doesn’t mean
we are lost. And being lost
doesn’t mean we aren’t right where we
are meant to be, off on our own,
more alert than before
amongst the ten thousand
shades of evergreen.
Eventually, the detour proved true,
and I was back on pavement,
then back on the interstate.
the taste of dust on my lips.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged path, poem, poetry, shoveling, snow on March 4, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged friendship, inner knowing, path, poem, poetry on October 16, 2017| 2 Comments »
for Susan
Walking the world of dry leaves
and rickety bridges,
there as in old letters,
we marvel at the things
we once knew that we have
just recently discovered—
How new it all is again.
How we orbit the same sun
every day and still
can be astonished
by the way things
shine.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged lost, path, poem, poetry on October 1, 2017| 4 Comments »
Lost in the woods
I tell myself it is not so bad
to be lost—
just look at the curve
of that red rock wall,
just listen to that wind,
how it finds everything.
How lost can I be?
The scent of juniper
finds me again, again,
again.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged journey, path, poem, poetry on September 4, 2017| 2 Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged path, poem, poetry, raspberries, sweetness on September 4, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Eventually you decide the scratches are worth it
and you wade through the vines into the thicket
where the berries still hang red and ripe and profuse.
You leave a suggestion of a path behind you.
Tomorrow it will be invisible, like so many paths
you’ve made. The bushes, like convictions, will reclaim
their wildness. But for now, there is this sweetness
to follow, this hunger, this pleasure in finding a way,
this drive to harvest all that the day has to offer.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged path, poem, poetry, rededication, walking on November 10, 2016| 4 Comments »
It is not that the path
has disappeared. It is only
that, stunned with grief
and kicked by fear,
we sometimes lose our will
to put one foot
in front of the other.
But we are not lost.
Already in the dark
we have found each other.
What astonishes is
that there are so many of us,
and already
we are building bridges
made of light.
The world shakes,
we stumble
and we help each other rise,
and now it is time
for us again to put one foot in front of the other—
not to escape what frightens us
but to walk unflinchingly
toward the messy center of things.
The path we choose now
is not one we’ve walked or even seen before,
the path is one that appears
beneath our feet
with each step,
and we persist,
travelers in the frozen dark
who begin to see the light as it shapes the horizon
and know, though it’s cold,
that the change we dream of
has already begun to arrive.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dead end, invitaiton, path, poem, poetry on October 3, 2016| 2 Comments »
Dead end. That is what the sign said.
Funny how long I’ve believed I could only walk on the road.
It was the deer who showed me how to leap the fence,
how to circle the sign in irregular orbits.
There was no end to the number of paths I might choose.
I was clumsy at first, unversed in this new navigation—
the earth so soft I easily lost my balance.
It was the breath that taught me to pour my weight
first into one foot, then into the other.
My soles relearned how to meet the ground.
It was the clouds that showed me how to let myself
be orchestrated by wind, spiraling like a bird,
as if stirred by some great hand.
Ever since I began circling, I’ve come to see that dead ends
as invitations.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged path, poem, poetry on September 9, 2016| 1 Comment »
Leaping off the train
not sure where I’m going
but certain no tracks
will get me there.
In the field
every step a new step.
