in my thoughts
a tap-rooted weed
sometimes I notice
its beautiful pink blooms
before I pull it again
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, poem, poetry, thoughts, weeds on July 30, 2019| 2 Comments »
in my thoughts
a tap-rooted weed
sometimes I notice
its beautiful pink blooms
before I pull it again
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged friendship, goat heads, poem, poetry, Rachel Kellum, weeds on June 26, 2019| 2 Comments »
Rachel and I walk the dirt track
around and around—there are
goat heads in bloom, and she pauses
to notice how beautiful the small purple
flowers are before they become vicious
and sharp-toothed, hostile and harsh.
How much aggression begins as beauty?
I have no love for the goat heads, but
now, seeing them sprawling and soft,
I can’t help but bow to the paradox
that exists in everything, even these woman
who walk circles in the middle of the desert
just for the joy of walking together. Something
in them has grown hardened and sharp.
They speak of it and weep and laugh. Something
in them softens into tiny lavender blooms.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged accomplishments, poem, poetry, weeds on June 15, 2019| 5 Comments »
after pulling thousands of weeds
all I see in the field—
weeds I’ve missed
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged perception, poem, poetry, weeds on August 27, 2016| 2 Comments »
in the knapweed field
a butterfly moves
from flower to flower—
trying to quiet the part of me
that only sees a problem
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged allowing, poem, poetry, saying yes to what is, sorrow, weeds on October 30, 2012| 3 Comments »
I used to loathe them,
the dandelions, the cheat grass,
the tamarisk, the whatever
wasn’t what I had planted.
I’d declare war in the field
and spend hours hunched over
removing the dark green rosettes
and ripping up handfuls of grass.
And likewise, I despised
sorrow, wanted to yank it
like a tap-rooted weed.
Wanted a garden without it.
It is not that I would encourage
sorrow now. Would not sow it,
nor plant a whole bed of it.
But nor would I yank it out.
It is not against me.
Perhaps the garden got bigger,
so much bigger that there
was more room for everything,
though I was not the one
who made it increase.
Perhaps it is that I can see
how much richer the soil is
with sorrow tilled in, too,
how now everything blooms
more beautifully, even all
those golds and purples
I would never have dreamed
of planting myself.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blank verse, ego, forgiveness, garden, poem, poetry, shame, sonnet, weeds on July 22, 2012| 7 Comments »
I am not fit to tend that garden yet.
Though I walk by it every day. Though it
is on my property. Though there’s a thriving
patch of shoulds sprung up around the fence.
The gate is twined in bindweed, green and dense.
The rows are long-since overgrown with grass,
oregano gone viral, clover, spears
of mullein, dandelion rosettes. I’ve grown
familiar with neglect, at times forget
it’s mine to cultivate. But there it is.
Last week, I stepped inside the disarray,
took one long look at shamed disorder, tried
to see a place to start, and quickly left.
I am not ready for that garden yet.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beauty, doors, haiku, inquiry, knowing, listening, not knowing, poem, weeds, winter on January 13, 2012| 1 Comment »
first the stars
then all the space between the stars
slipped into my tea
*
dried and dead
I leave them in the vase
the naked tulips
*
winter
every cloud
a love letter
*
hey poet
get out of the way
said the poem
*
bird on the wire
for a few moments
we both stop singing
*
the weeds gone to seed—
and who is this one
who thinks they are weeds
*
another door,
another door, another wall
becomes a door