poets awaken our eye.
Fresh To move Cleanly. Needing to be Nowhere else. Wanting nothing From any store. To lift something You already had And set it down in A new place. Awakened eye Seeing freshly. What does that do to The old blood …
poets save us by love.
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished …
poets wonder who will survive all these liberations.
Who Said It Was Simple There are so many roots to the tree of anger that sometimes the branches shatter before they bear. Sitting in Nedicks the women rally before they march discussing the problematic girls they hire to make them free. An almost white counterman passes a waiting brother …
poets tell us where our home is.
Why Bodhidharma Went to Howard Johnson’s “Where is your home,” the interviewer asked him. Here. “No, no,” the interviewer said, thinking it a problem of translation, “when you are where you actually live.” Now it was his turn to think, perhaps the translation? -Jane Hirshfield (The Wisdom Anthology of North …
poets keep on knowing.
A Note Life is the only way to get covered in leaves, catch your breath on the sand, rise on wings; to be a dog, or stroke its warm fur; to tell pain from everything it’s …
poets watch the clouds.
Seeing More – Discoveries? i watch the clouds drifting slowly by the trees trembling so slightly bending, leaning, straightening i watch the sun dry the deck, little by little warming the wood where my dog sleeps at my feet …
poets pray for children.
A Prayer for Children We pray for children Who sneak popsicles before supper, Who erase holes in math workbooks, Who can never find their shoes. And we pray for those Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, Who can’t bound down the …
Poets teach us to swim.
For Julia, In the Deep Water The instructor we hire because she does not love you Leads you into the deep water, The deep end Where the water is darker— Her open, encouraging arms That never get nearer Are merciless for your …
poets step onto new ground.
For a New Beginning In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you were ready to emerge. – For a long time it has watched your desire, Feeling …
Poets teach us to let go.
Letting You Go I loved you once. on those endless summer days in the pool, barefoot walks on hot asphalt to the corner store cigarettes for you, grape Mr. Freeze for me. eating your special Sunday scrambled eggs with ketchup planting backyard rows of majestic purple irises and early morning …
