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Posts Tagged ‘transformation’

To the Self Who Thinks Faster Is Better

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 9, 2025| 10 Comments »


 
 
As slowly as this aloe grows,
could I dare to flow that slowly
from this uncomfortable moment
into the moment that follows?
Not just slow, no, but deliberate—
willing to notice all that is here.
For so long I have trusted the part
of me who believes faster is better.
Now I’m exhausted, and of course,
I want to get over my exhaustion, fast.
Truth is, I love slow. I love the juiciness
of presence and quiet. Oh paradox.
Can’t I move fast and still feel spacious?
The aloe knows a single leaf a month
is leaf enough. I touch my palm to my belly
and whisper aloud what Augusta said.
Slow is enough. Slow is a blessing.
Slow is safe. The self who wants this ache
to go away fast and faster sits beside the aloe
and imagines it might open to aloe wisdom.
I imagine my blood thick as gel in the aloe leaves.
I imagine a single leaf of a thought at a time.
I notice the prickle of discomfort and
name it discomfort. Notice the impulse
to get up and run. Notice the part of me
that wants to feel better right now. Notice
how the more I notice, the more slow
feels like home.

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Ever Changing 

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on October 24, 2025| 9 Comments »


 
In my urgency to clutch it,
I made peace a thing
to be protected,
like a jewel, like a token,
instead of a force
that transforms.
What if I let peace sweep
through me as branches
are cleared by wind?
What if I let peace flood me,
scouring what I thought
I knew? What if, no matter
how hard I tried to
capture it, peace slipped
through my grasp like mist,
like rain, like time?
If I trusted an ever present
peace as much as I trust
ever present chaos,
who would I be then?

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Alteration

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 22, 2025| 8 Comments »


 
 
Though you’ve tried
to fit into
a thousand
small boxes,
perhaps comes
the day when
you’re opened
by grief or by
love, and your
thoughts unstitch
from what you knew,
and your mind
begins to rhyme
with sky, becomes
spacious enough
whole flocks
of bluebirds
can fly right
through, and
for a time you
stop trying
to make sense
of things, you
simply yield
to being
a home for
the ecstasy
of wings.

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Permanent

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

 
 
The way beetles 
have carved their way
into the bark of the pine, 
that is the way you carved
your life into my life.
Beneath my skin
where no one can see,
there, every surface of me
is marked by your life,
the ways you burrowed
into everything I thought
I knew and rewrote
me into questions.
I admit I cannot read
the markings, though
I have tried.
Perhaps it is enough
to know this is true—
I’ve been forever changed
by the story of you.

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In Harsh Times

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 4, 2025| 11 Comments »


 
I know, music alone
will not save us. But tonight
when my daughter played
the song we both love,
we smiled at each other,
all giddy and warm,
and some shriveled
part of me revived.
It was like those seeds
in the desert that wait years
to germinate—all they need
is one good rain.
That’s what a song can do.
Remind us our hope
is merely dormant, not dead.
Who could blame me, then,
for wanting to bring a song
to the whole thirsty world,
a song that soaks into
our parched hearts,
stunning us with just how fast
even the harshest world
can transform.

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Anyone can see she’s a beautiful woman, but god,

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 16, 2025| 9 Comments »


for Erin
 
 
Anyone can see she’s a beautiful woman, but god,
she has never been more beautiful to me than when
I brought my great nephews to the loft of her barn
and she picked up a red ping pong paddle and let
the small, fretful boy across the old green table make up
the rules for the game. And every time he’d change the rules—
assigning points for hitting the ball over the exposed beams
of the barn or points for hitting the ball into narrow window frames—
no matter the rules he contrived, she would shrug and say yes
and laugh and let the ball be forever in play. There was sunshine
in her voice when she praised him, pure radiance
in the way she squealed as the ball ricocheted
in the rafters, honest incandescence in her smile.
This is how generosity and goodness survive—
they’re passed on one brief interaction at a time.
When the boys and I left that dusty, sacred space,
fully covered in dust and hay, I swear we, too, were luminous.

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One Not Without Fear

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on February 27, 2025| 6 Comments »

said the ice to the flame
teach me again
to be cloud

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Poem in Which You Are Storm, I Am Meadow

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 17, 2025| 6 Comments »


 
 
By noon
the snow
that changed
 
the world
from brown
to white
 
in just
a day
seems gone—
 
the meadow
however, remembers
the gift.
 
Come spring,
there will
be green.

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The Man Who Rings Me Up at Target

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on December 19, 2024| 4 Comments »


 
 
tells me he used to be mean.
Tells me used to not like
who he was. Tells me he dreamed
of his mother after she died
and she told him that though
she was no longer with him,
she still could teach him
how to be alive, which,
in practical terms, meant
how to be kind.
In the time it takes for me to buy
lint rollers and lip balm,
I am so moved by this woman
I will only meet through
a dream and a checkout lane
conversation that I walk out
into the night with a smile
on my face. This is the way
we share hope with each other,
one thin strand at a time.
By the time I get to the car,
I’m still smiling, wholly tethered to life
by a gift that appeared so slight
at first I didn’t even know
it was there.
 
 

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One Hearing My Daughter Laugh

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on October 24, 2024| 4 Comments »


just when I think
I’m made of sludge
you candle me

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