Magnolia
If you were to leave your body with this breath, you’d float across the lake like dandelion seeds on the wind; the cool denseness of the surface buoying you, the deep gravity of the water anchoring you.
If you were to leave your body with this breath, the stars would twinkle just as if you hadn’t, but the moon, the moon would heave earth and ocean just to draw you heavenward.
Wednesday 28th July 2021 4:09 pm
Illuminated
From the center of our solar system
The sun casts light out to every corner of the universe.
We celebrate the light,
and remark on its changes
In our calendars and almanacs
as eclipses, equinoxes, and solstices
In our paintings and literature
as epiphanies.
To the sun credit is commonly given
for all life on earth,
_______________________________________________ ...
Thursday 21st November 2019 2:35 am
Like the Pros
Side of the box says "Pack like the Pros!"
At 12:12am on the last day in the house where you raised your children,
So tired you fell asleep twice on the kitchen floor,
Between the beans and the box of sugar cones already covered in powdery mildew;
You won't find out until you unpack it 3 months from now.
Pack like the prose,
Dense as the molasses tastes like corn syrup
Slick upstep salesm...
Thursday 4th April 2019 6:40 am
Sourdough Recipe #2
Building a civilization
is a lot like baking a loaf of bread:
All you need are the right ingredients,
a little know-how,
and an oven.
Friday 30th November 2018 3:06 pm
A Long Life
Would you choose a long life
of perennial good health
and perpetual leisure,
Or one breathtakingly short,
punctuated by grief,
but drawn in the lines
and brushstrokes
of an artist?
The choice was made already,
long before you had a chance
to contemplate the possibilities.
So surrender nothing,
not even a moment
of what can be forgiven.
Thursday 27th September 2018 4:38 pm
Waking
If you are first to rise in the morning,
move lightly as you go,
Children upstairs are still sleeping,
folded in soft blankets, soft breathing.
Step, more softly than their dreaming.
Step, more softly than their dreaming.
Tuesday 28th August 2018 1:43 pm
Middle Child
You’d never imagine the strength
An eleven year old boy can muster,
Dragging his sister through the smoke.
Nine years old next Tuesday.
She takes a long, slow drag from the pipe,
Cupping it in her mouth, blowing out smooth,
Then passes it to me.
Tiny red ember, delicate crown of ash.
You can’t stop to think when you reach the stairs,
Even though you feel her head hitting
Ea...
Friday 16th February 2018 6:34 am
Ruminations
Where my strangeness
meets your strangeness,
a home exists.
Without walls, absent judgement,
there is room only for expression,
the peeling paint
of self-discovery.
Thursday 21st December 2017 2:58 pm
A Storm Was Raging
I woke this morning
before dawn
In the deep
quiet of the night.
A gentle breeze was telling me
"Go back to sleep"
But I was restless.
I rose thirsty, thinking of water
but found myself walking
Past the kitchen,
to the back hall.
I put on my sandals and left.
Walking east, I marveled
at the brightness of the Morning Star
"Phosphorus" you had called it once;
it seemed...
Monday 20th November 2017 2:29 pm
Knighthood
In third grade we were just amorphous blobs,
by fifth grade, we'd been sorted.
Princes, princesses, also-rans,
and of course, the unrewarded.
I was the budding knight,
and you the fragile flower.
Funny how I didn't notice then
the missing petals in the dower.
It came as a suprise to me,
that the sorting never stops
You'll think you've won
the fight is done
And then the ...
Wednesday 25th October 2017 3:53 pm
Sorcerer's Apprentice
Lift the bucket of your own sorrow,
and pour it out.
Carry the weight of your own grief,
so you can be the one to release it.
What you have struggled against,
you may yet conquer,
What you have proxied,
you might never wash your hands of.
To proxy an act of violence
is to be bound to it forever.
To delegate an accolade
is to anul it.
To speak of a truly good thing
is...
Sunday 22nd October 2017 3:45 pm
Held
Do not mind this mad-ness in me.
It is mindless,
so give no thought to it.
It is angry,
so give it no admittance to your heart.
Running without stopping,
you would soon drop from exhaustion.
Run then,
but further.
Go ahead,
but faster.
In my hands a loadstone, a dilemma.
Hold fast,
or join you.
Friday 20th October 2017 4:05 am
Sunrise
Every moment on Earth,
the sun is somewhere rising.
Wherever you are here, the sun will rise and pass over you, whether you acknowledge it or not.
Rise and pass over,
rise and pass over.
Ice knows it by the melting. Hidden pockets of quartz-in-rock know it by the warming. I know it by the forgiveness I feel watching sunlight dance across the water.
Every moment on Earth,
the sun is...
Friday 20th October 2017 2:39 am
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