Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘thirst’

Ode to the Empty Cup

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 3, 2023| 12 Comments »


There are cups on my shelf
I will never use—
cups that will never hold tea
nor water nor coffee.
It brings me such joy
they are there, though,
filled, as they are,
with memories.
Perhaps this is how
I begin to teach
the thirstiest parts of me
that a cup without something
tangible in it
is not always empty.

Read Full Post »

Clear Instruction

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 26, 2020| 2 Comments »

Tonight my daughter

closes her fist

around the first snow

squeezes to make it

into a small cold ball

the shape of her hand,

and then offers it to me.

It tastes like sky,

like electric charge,

like winter, like childhood,

like curiosity.

And once again

I’m a girl who walks

to the neighbor’s yard

for a drink at the well—

I pump the heavy lever

and it draws clean, clear water

from the ground.

There’s a red metal ladle

hanging from a nail

on a nearby tree,

and the water tastes of moss

and rust and freedom.

There is a thirst

that’s been bequeathed us—

a thirst for what is

untreated and pure,

a thirst I somehow

manage to forget.

If it could speak,

the thirst might say,

Remember, remember,

remember.

Read Full Post »

One Bidding

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 12, 2020| 4 Comments »

 

 

 

waking to rain 

what is driest in me 

reshapes itself  

into a beggar’s bowl 

puts itself in my hands 

Read Full Post »

Let’s Get Drunk

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 16, 2020| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

The Sufis had it right—

the day is a glass of wine.

It matters not what kind

of vessel it’s poured into—

chipped clay or crystal

or wooden cup. There

is divinity in it regardless—

the chance to dance alongside

the rational, logical self

and fall in love. It brings

the potential for bliss,

for persuasiveness, for imagination,

for spontaneous and riotous

laughter. And you, perhaps,

like I, are beginning to realize

just how dry the mouth,

just how thirsty the heart.

 

 

Read Full Post »

On a Day When the World Has Its Way With Me

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

 

 

Like every other day, today

it is apparent that only love

will save us. Not in the grandiose

abstract way, but in the alarming

specific way. As in forgiveness, now.

As in choosing to hug instead

of fighting back. As in taking

three deep breaths before saying

something we regret. It saves us

from thirsting in the desert of our lives,

but only if we save it first by

choosing it, now in this moment

of angry words, now in this moment

of clenched thoughts, now in

this moment when we’d rather

taste venom but instead, we

pour love into our cup and

bring it to our lips and drink

and drink until once again

it is only love that makes sense,

only love that refills the cup.

Read Full Post »

Damn Thirsty

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on December 7, 2017| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

Scent of Darjeeling

escapes through

the poem’s cup—

from miles away

you smell it,

twist of citrus,

muscatel—

try telling your thirst

it’s just words,

the delicate

flowering in the air,

the warmth

of the cup,

the fruit

making merry

on your tongue.

Read Full Post »

When It Comes Down to It

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 6, 2016| 1 Comment »

 

 

 

you, the traveler

thirsting in the desert

and me, the whisky

wishing I could be

your water

Read Full Post »

Sounds Crazy But It Happens

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on October 2, 2015| 1 Comment »

so parched she walks miles

for a drink not noticing

the well in her own back yard

Read Full Post »

So Thirsty

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

If you follow a bee,

my friend says, it will lead you

to water. Suddenly

I have never been

so thirsty. I have spent

too much time living

close to the water

without drinking.

I have spent too many hours

not following bees.

I have my excuses—

all the ways I like

to appear busy-ish—

but they all have the same

stale scent excuses always have.

In the tombs of Egypt,

they found honey,

perfectly preserved.

Some things keep.

I look at my dry hands.

Some things have only

so much time.

Read Full Post »