Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, flower, poem, poetry, surrender on August 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »
A flower in the field
is always changed by rain.
It is never indifferent
to sun. Even the slightest
of breezes will bend it,
will rearrange. An ant
walks through its center—
now so much more is possible.
It never pretends
to be unaffected by the world.
I have so much to learn
from the flowers of the field,
how they never turn their backs—
they don’t even have backs.
How they withstand hail
and flood and snow and chill
and still, they bloom,
they spill seeds, they
bring all the beauty they can.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged accepance, poem, poetry, rain, surrender on November 18, 2018| 2 Comments »
After all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
And so after shouting
and whining and begging
and crying and whimpering,
simpering, weeping and sniveling,
sobbing and blubbering, bawling
and name calling, wailing
and flailing and thrashing
and sprawling, and after the threats
and after the bribes, after
loudly groaning and prostrated moaning,
at last she was quiet and felt
against her cheek the damp,
and she noticed the whole
world a-glistening and she
walked in the rain, hair wet,
clothes wet, and instead
of complaining, she began
listening, listening
to the humble, beautiful
song of rain.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged abandon, poem, poetry, puddle, rain, surrender on October 23, 2018| Leave a Comment »
drenched in the downpour—
the feet, now reckless,
find a playground in every puddle
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged moon, poem, poetry, surrender on June 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Elizabeth Bishop, loss, poem, poetry, rondeau, surrender on March 11, 2018| 2 Comments »
Lose something every day.
—Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art”
Lose something every day, the poet said—
and how I laughed the first time that I read
her words. My keys? My gloves? My place in line?
My favorite socks? A name? My glass of wine?
I’ve got that down, I thought, and shook my head.
But then I thought of passing time, the threads
of dates unraveling—and how I try to wind
them back, reclaim those squandered hours as mine.
Lose something every day?
And then I thought of certainty, how wed
I am to thoughts, convictions, faith. Instead
of losing them, I cling. Then they confine.
Some things are better lost—my rigid mind,
my prejudice, old chains of shame, my dread—
lose something every day.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged allowing, poem, poetry, referee, surrender on February 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »
playing referee
between the sun and clouds,
eventually I take off my stripes
to be a spectator instead—
how pleasant
without all that whistling
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged moon, new year, poem, poetry, surrender on January 1, 2018| 2 Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged confucius, flat tire, lute, poem, poetry, surrender on September 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Sitting in the rain
in the dark
with three good tires
I think of Confucius,
who, when arrested
by accident didn’t fuss,
rather sat in his cell for five days
playing lute until his story
untangled and he
was set free.
It is dry in the car,
and though the radio works,
I do not turn it on.
I never learned
to play lute,
but sense that perhaps
I am being played, what
with this long neck,
with my deep round back,
with my body still learning
to open.
The rain keeps
inconsistent time
on the windshield.
It is not deliberately
that the world
throws rocks
in the road.
Or is it?
The dark is only
the dark.
I feel a lessening
of the tension,
a tuning,
and who is it
that pulls
the strings.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, shortcut, surrender on September 23, 2017| 1 Comment »
Surrender is not like this highway
with its dotted lines and passing lanes
and its well-marked exit signs.
Surrender is more a dirt country road
where you’ve taken a turn
that doesn’t show up in the map.
And then run out of gas. And
get a flat. And then, when you think
it can’t get worse, you start
to giggle, then full belly laugh.
Yeah, surrender is something like that.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged direction, poem, poetry, surrender on August 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »
