Early March, Five am

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Early March, Five am Two cardinals take up a call and response this morning, one trilling up, the other down. They are calling us awake from the night, from the long winter when they were mostly quiet... Read More

Essence Song

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Essence Song While the chaos of the world spins out of control, encroaching, threatening, step back for a moment and listen. Beneath the noise, there is a familiar wordless melody calling to you. It i... Read More

Mid-February

Mid-February Look at the tree. Just by growing, by reaching toward the Light, it provides so much- breath and beauty, shade and haven, nourishment. It doesn’t punish itself, but endures what must be... Read More

Other People

Other People Of course, the big lessons came from family members, teachers, the major players in your life. But there were other, less obvious people, too. You know who they were- a neighbor whose kid... Read More

Dear God

Dear God Dear God, As you know by now, I am not a fan of pain in any form, my own, of course, but especially not in my children and now grandchildren. Always way worse. I know, I know. It’s an unavo... Read More

Beyond Memory

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Beyond Memory Childhood was fleeting compared to the decades and phases of adulthood, still ongoing. So long ago now, I can barely remember its particulars, only its essence, only brief images that em... Read More

NewYear’s Resolution

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New Year’s Resolution Take a bite of warm apple sauce on this frigid January day. Remember your small granddaughter climbing the rickety ladder by the tree, its branches drooping with fruit. Remembe... Read More

Your Gift

Your Gift In this cold, bleak season, the cover of green long gone, all kinds of messiness is exposed. The world looks stark, turning thoughts to gray. Then, one, small, lovely thing breaks through th... Read More

Small Doors

Small Doors I have been thinking about poetry and how it is most often simply opening one small door into the seemingly ordinary and expanding into what is beyond- a whole world that has always been h... Read More

Heaven

Heaven Maybe it’s a place like I see sometimes in my dreams. We are all children about four years old and we are playing the way children this age do- with total abandon in the moment. Running, clim... Read More

No Matter

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No Matter No matter that I tossed, tangled in a blanket of worry or that my dreams, when they finally came, were stark and disturbing or that my foggy mind, exhausted, still clings to darkness. The bi... Read More

Traverse

Traverse Outside, the wild wind, the blowing rain whip fallen leaves into a frenzy, knock weakened trees to their knees. Inside, only a wall and window away, I am cozy in my flannels, toasty socks, wi... Read More

How They Saved Me

How They Saved Me My prayers of desperation were almost always centered around my children. Please. I beg You. Bargaining, even though I don’t believe in that sort of thing. I would have given my li... Read More

Foremother’s Solace

Foremothers’ Solace Late afternoon, waning sunlight streaming in, the familiar, repetitive work of keeping a household afloat finished for the day, I rest. It occurs to me how hard my foremothers mu... Read More

Home

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Home I like to be The first one home In the afternoon, To find the house Silently waiting. The books rest on the shelf, Leaning gently to the left. The table holds the candlestick Benevolently in its ... Read More

Reminiscing

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Reminiscing As their colors begin to turn, each day a little more brown and yellow and red, the trees seem to be reminiscing. “Remember?” they say to each other on the cool wind. “Remember May a... Read More

Hiking Companions

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Hiking Companions Anxiety starts off strong, picking up stones along the path to rub their sharp edges, but wears out quickly. Melancholy quietly places those stones in a sack and slings it over his s... Read More

Take a Knee

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Take a Knee Sitting on the sidelines at my grandson’s soccer game on that cool night, bundled in a shared blanket, we cheered for his team while our neighbors to the left cheered for the other and t... Read More