A photo of my journals from 2013, now fat with words and ready to retire.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Resolvathon
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends —Emerson, Lake & Palmer
With champagne and confetti,
we welcome you,
New Year, cold and small and dark,
so unsure of yourself, here at the start.
Trust us. We have done this many times.
We are full of rich food and resolutions,
and dedicate your birthday,
to revelry and resolving, both revolving
round again and again.
Trust us, fresh and uncertain year—we
are full, more than full—
overflowing with our good intentions,
wrapped packages of presents and promises,
all for you.
Turquoise Thoughts
When the yoga teacher tells us
in her calmest voice, Picture
the space between thoughts,
I try. The space is white,
framed by the real show:
Those turquoise thoughts
edging both sides,
unfolding into lines that curl
round themselves like long tails,
patterns intricate and warm with
color, so distinct from the
white quiet between.
Six Word Saturday: December 28
Cozy daughter day, Little Women, popcorn.
Read more Six-Word Saturdays
Lights At Every Window
adorning trees and doorways,
staircases, banisters,
edged along the ceilings,
stretched out and glowing,
as all of us—
Evolved Pagans,
Recalcitrant Christians,
Faithful Followers,
the Uninvolved But Jolly,
and the
Perpetually Uncertain,
go forward, feeling our way for
the electric plug, the match to the candle,
the spark to the night,
mostly blind to each other,
but working at the important work:
Holding back the darkness, together.
The World Thick With Angels
These are the days thick with angels.
Here’s the tiny one from my childhood,
in her pale pink gown, silver wings chipped,
her painted plaster face fading but serene.
Here’s the handmade one on my mantle
dressed in green velvet, wings of soft white feathers,
her banner trimmed in gold, proclaiming hopefully—
Peace Be With You Always.
Here, three enormous plywood angels
adorn my neighbor’s yard, painted white,
bedecked with strings of lights and
caught mid-flight, wings and trumpets raised
announcing joy to the grey skies of my street.
And here, the most important angel,
invisible and vital—the one who steered
while you slid off the snowy country road
and into a field—a lovely field with no precipice,
no pond, no enormous tree in your path.
That one? Oh, that is my favorite angel.
Six Word Saturday: Dec. 21
Angel shapes ribbon through the cornfields.
Read more at Six Word Saturdays.
Unread
He asked for help with the old book
falling apart in his hands.
The spine was gone.
Inside, leaves of pages stitched together.
Those neat stitches may hold forever,
but the pages are disintegrating
the words unraveling themselves from
this book, titled What A Woman Wants,
Unread
across the long decades.
Grace For The Commute
I listen to the NPR series
about commuting
on my morning commute
to savor the symmetry.
Today a mother spoke about
her three-hour commute
on a subway, with a toddler,
and the word she used
to describe this time was grateful.
I listened,
as I drove and the sun rose
over the hills and little lakes
of my morning commute,
red sky reflecting me,
ashamed of the petty griping
in my head, of my need to
be prodded, like a toddler,
reminded to say thank you,
to be grateful for this
overflowing world of wonder.
Puff Of Smoke Poems 