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Posts Tagged ‘perspective’

Who is this woman so concerned with arrivals?

Doesn’t she know we are writing about paths?

What is her rush to get to the meadow?

What does she think she will find there?

She missed the sunflowers in the garden,

a whole row of luscious bright yellow bloom.

She missed the chatter of the chipmunk,

the hot scent of rabbit brush almost like sage,

the mica glistening like crushed starlight beneath her feet.

She is like one of those trucks on the highway,

a blur, a roar, an impersonal thundering.

Oh, see, now that she thinks she’s arrived somewhere,

now she starts noticing the field,

the crunch of dry grass, the dirt, her own short shadow.

Funny, she looks lost, standing there with her pen and paper,

her longing to find something worthwhile to say.

Should we tell her it’s okay,

that the lack of arrival could be her new point A?

And everywhere she looks, a new path.

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It smacks me, sometimes,

how connected we are—

though we draw boundaries,

build walls, fight wars,

call names, and kill. All it takes

is a photo of earth from space

and I’m stunned again,

how much we are in this together.

And though we’d rather not know it,

every choice we make

affects everyone, everything else.

Perhaps this is why I weep

when the woman I’ve barely met

embroiders me a sweater

with a word she knows I’ll love

and then brings it to my home.  

Because it’s proof of kindness,

a confirmation that beauty

not only exists, it will lead us to each other.

How easily two strangers

might become friends.

It can happen anywhere

on this small blue and green planet—

anywhere two people co-exist,

the invitation to be generous,

thoughtful, to think of new ways

to be good to each other.

Each kindness a bridge that spans

the world’s flaws. Each moment,

another chance to build another bridge.

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And when fear comes to the door bringing flowers

acting as if it’s a friend,

it’s okay to not want to let it in.

It’s okay to lock the door—

it’ll make you feel as if you’re doing something.

Fear will enter anyway.

At least it won’t expect a hug.

It won’t wash its hands,

not even when you ask nicely.

And it is more contagious than any virus—

spreads without sneezes or coughs.

It won’t leave when you ask, but

there are ways to make it quieter—

like inviting a few others to join you,

preferably gratitude, compassion, love,

kindness, vulnerability. These friends

always come when asked, wearing

the loveliest perfume. They change

the conversation, the way lemon

and honey change the bitter tea.

They remind you who you are,

invite you to look out the window

and see how beautiful the world

when the shadows are long.

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And once again the invitation

to see beyond the self—

the way water knows itself

not only as river and lake

but also as fern, as cloud, as cat.

Forgive me for believing

I end with this skin, these ideas,

these imaginings. Sometimes

I forget to choose vastness,

forget to know the self

as cliff, as maitake, as crumb.

How is it I so often miss the invitation?

How is it I overlook that I

am lemon, asteroid, wren?

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Direction

 

 

lost in this meadow

deep in the grass

so easy to think

there is no path—

 

ask the mice

ask the stars

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it was never meant to last,

this life, though we tell ourselves

we’re different, though we tell

ourselves we matter. But the planet

is patient. And the sky is older than that.

The bones in the exhibit hall are proof.

 

Still, as I drive the seven hours to home,

I am careful to stay in my lane,

careful to miss the dead lump of what once

was a bird, to use my turn signal,

to wave thanks at the truck driver

who let me into the flow.

 

It may not go on forever, but

for now there is this chance

to learn about communion.

There is this chance

to see just how generous

we can be with these drying bones.

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carrying a candle outside

into the twilight, the whole world

revolves around the tiny flame

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stubbing my toe

the whole foot, the whole world,

becomes toe

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One Perspective

 

 

 

first stepping into the galaxy

to see that tiny blue dot—

now ready to watch the news

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Concourse B

She walks so easily down the concourse,

the young woman in the short dress and sandals,

her purse slung across her slender shoulder.

She’s not encumbered by much that I can see—

no children pulling on her shirt, no carry on

rolling behind her, no backpack or heavy purse.

I can’t help but notice how light she might feel,

what with her skiff of a sundress. I can almost smell

the freedom like a perfume she doesn’t know

she is wearing. I was like her, once, at least that

is what I would like to think, though I know better

than to project this way. It is easy to imagine

that she is free in ways I once was, though

never knew. Who can say what invisible chains

weight us down. Looking back, I notice

how little I noticed then. On a whim,

I decide to pretend I am older now looking back

at myself. Oh look, look at her, how light she is.

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Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
—Albert Einstein

Am I a woman dreaming she’s a bear?
Or bear who’s dreaming she’s a woman, lost?
I cannot find the answer anywhere.

One thing’s for sure, the bear is not aware
she might be dreaming. She is hungry, cross.
Am I a woman dreaming she’s a bear?

The woman, on the other hand, she cares
if it’s dream. Are these her teeth? Her paws?
She cannot find the answer anywhere.

The she-bear lifts her nostrils to the air
and sniffs. She feels the edge of coming frost.
Am I a woman dreaming she’s a bear?

The woman falls down to her knees and stares,
confused by her wide footprints in the moss.
She cannot find the answer anywhere.

It’s time to sleep? It’s time to wake? I swear
I cannot say. Are these my hands? Or claws?
Am I a woman dreaming she’s a bear?
I cannot find the answer anywhere.

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I grieved
that the rose had stopped blooming
when in fact
it was opening
only very, very, very slowly

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Another Look

Oh look! says Anita,
pointing to the window,
and there, where only minutes ago

we saw mountains
we now see only gray.
I think of how

I cannot see you.
How many veils
are in the way?

It’s no use
to try to pull them down.
They drop when it is time.

I know where you
are. The mountains, too.
Perhaps I am the one

who is hiding.

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Five on Seeing

Did you notice,
I say, the gorilla’s nose
is shaped like a heart?
Yes, she says, but my heart
is shaped like a fist.

*

Easy to see
I’m a wave in the water—
when I disappear
nothing essential
will be lost.

*

Harder to believe
nothing’s lost when my daughter
pulls the needle
out of my knitting
and the stitches fall off.

*

Ever notice
how hard it is to see eye
to eye when our
backs are toward
each other?

*

Solar eclipse
in Taurus and the window
between worlds opens—
eyes wide, advises my chart,
it’s a new day for your heart

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Perspective

The biggest hope
I dared to hope,
I drew a circle
round it
and then
stepped
beyond the ring,
and saw myself
a small point
of infinity
how miniature
my greatest
hopes,
how slight
what I
call me.

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Dad takes out the microscope
from a dusty old suitcase
and sets it up on the kitchen table.

Once again I’m six years old
and we are living near the lake
where he takes me out with a net and a vial

to collect the water together.
He shows me how to make a slide,
how to focus the lens, how to steady

my eye and how to be patient
and wait for the tiny world
to reveal itself.

My son and daughter are with us
today, and he takes them out
to the waterway with the net

and the vial and all their curiosity.
I’d forgotten how miraculous it feels
to look into a droplet and find

a universe with slender strands
and tiny spiraled globs of green
and all the unseen critters seen,

their eyeless, mouthless,
heartless forms nudging
at the algal threads or speeding

across and off the slide.
How big the world seems then,
and how very, very small—

how hard it is to know
where we fit into it all—
this world with its car bombs

and militant groups, adventure
movies and evening news,
Jupiter high in the springtime sky

and under the microscope,
single-celled things zooming
and worming and meandering.

Who could make sense of it?
How simple to be one of these
small creatures I can’t name,

how simple it was to be that girl,
six years old, beside her father
on the microscope bench

dropping beads of water
onto the slides, kneeling on her chair,
mesmerized.

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five haiku


I could never say
what love is but often
I say I love you

*

you’re shy? it’s okay—
I can drip love from these words
instead of flooding

*

who says there is
only one sun? let’s think
vaster than that

*

falling through
the spaces between stars
a temple of emptiness

*

a velvet cage
is still a cage she said
scissors in hand

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my daughter
and I, two small points
beneath a sky
of infinite small
bright points

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go ahead tanka

draw a line
in the sand
with your toe—
just see if the ocean
cares.

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