Category: Maria Brady-Smith
How He Worships
How He Worships He wakes in the morning, stretches his stiff bones, dresses, kisses his wife, pours a cup of coffee and steps out the door into the garden that he has planted, tilling and sowing, hoei... 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
Some Mornings
Some Mornings Some mornings I wake up so afraid. I see how much is slipping away while I stand in frozen disbelief. I am overwhelmed by the futility of my small actions. I wonder at the naive sureness... Read More
On Turning Sixty
On Turning Sixty I am not old. But I can see old there on the horizon. Which has always been true, I suppose. Its just that now, I don’t need binoculars. Like most change, this aging thing is not my... Read More
In the Details
In the Details It’s in the details that I exist. It’s in good morning, did you sleep ok? Come on girls, its time to wake up, Flipping on the hall light Shuffling down the stairs To start coffee. I... Read More
Gift of a Teapot
Gift of a Teapot It was a wedding gift from long ago friends- a tiny Japanese teapot imprinted with leaves from the ancient ginkgo, a tree that has survived the millennia when tougher, bigger trees di... Read More
Hallelujah
Hallelujah On this crisp spring morning, the dogwood tree gracefully offers its abundant platters of delicate blossoms in an act of grateful praise. A royal carpet of violets covers the ground at its ... Read More
What My Words Cannot Contain
What My Words Cannot Contain I want my life to be a prayer and by that, I mean a seeking, a listening, a blossoming toward. Toward what? I don’t want to say “God” because it is a word too fraugh... Read More
What is a Poem?
What is a Poem? You know that feeling when you’ve got too much to do and you can’t imagine how you are going to pack it all in so to calm yourself, you count ahead to the next quiet day, which doe... Read More
Night Sounds
Night Sounds Long after midnight I wake to the sounds Of the world carrying on In my absence. A siren pierces the darkness, Aroused by another’s adversity- A heart suddenly silent, A home embraced b... Read More
Milestones
Milestones Without realizing it, the years have slipped quickly by and suddenly, our quiet house is lit up with the noise and dearness of grandchildren. I watch them in wonder, each little face so uni... Read More
Along for the Ride
Along for the Ride The whole family piled into that station wagon. Big kids sat in the middle seat, little kids in the far back, facing the rear. I was one of the little kids, just along for the ride.... Read More
Ode To A Chair
Ode To A Chair The old metal chair sits in the backyard, Its back firm, Its arms magnanimously at its side. It weathers all the seasons, Patiently enduring snow and storms And oxidizing sun. Dirt and ... Read More
Expansion and Contraction
Expansion and Contraction In the beginning, I lived in a womb. That is how small my world once was. When I stretched that place to its limit, I was born. My world has been an expanding circle ever sin... Read More
I am still learning how to live
I am still learning how to live I live still learning how to live into the empty spaces, to sit within them quietly rather than fill them quickly just to keep anxiety and guilt at bay. I am still lear... 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