writings
April
In the earnest morning of my latest being
I search for socks that match and a face in the mirror
That is well composed to meet the encounters
That will make me stretch my discernment
Of what makes this world tick
In the seamless experience of time.
When really, the winds of god
Pull at us like rooted trees in a tornado
Resistant to the power and leaning haplessly
To the intense and almost pleasurable delight of change.
Traveling
I could not find my destination
Because it was not where I left it.
Just To Say
Just to say like a note on the fridge,
Or a message etched in sand
That can only be read from the cliffs.
Just to say like prayers that are ancient and rote,
And journals that are never reread.
Just to say like stones arranged
In the desert to show the way,
Or sacred stands of trees
That move without leaving.
Just to say nothing within the silence
Of everything over and over again.
Do You Want To Start a Fire?
1.
Tell me I can’t.
Try to censure the swing of my hips.
Judge my free fall of words and deeds.
Pop the bubble of my goodwill.
Start a trend toward disrespect.
Attach a sign to my back that says:
Not quite. Inappropriate. What is she thinking?
2.
What you don’t know:
What you seem to not get:
What you fail to understand:
I’ve been tending the flame,
Crouched deep inside myself,
Protecting my flicker of light
With cupped hands and a curved back
To keep it safe. To keep it burning.
Whispering promises to myself that
Someday. Someday it will be time.
Someday the howling wind of
Derision and contempt won’t matter.
Someday I will take all that fuel
Collected around me
And I will strike a match.
3.
In case my instructions are not clear,
Let me restate:
I have no interests in a controlled burn.
So come on. Come at me. Do your best.
Just make sure you are ready to run
When the fire becomes wild.
More than the common world can manage.
The Last Red Rose
I’d never considered the old rose
on the branch to be the most lovely—
But I am learning that it is she
in the dead of winter
that grasps the stem
with the fiercest tenacity of hope.
