Heart in mouth Raw need Spread hands She settles herself Deep breaths Tough out the Silence This shadow bounces Haunts Discipline Slowly take it Slowly The sun has risen Don’t worry Keep growing Fluidity Greatest physician Water of life Supplemental Desired Enter every room like a Dancer Every person How wonderful is this Life Prayer…

Dare. Place moon cleanly between heart and lung. Listen: to the sounds the stars make as they crackle and burn above you. Trust. Love is common; need; like rain in August. Know: the hand reaching out is always reaching in.

I’m taking back my mind that got hijacked on the way I drew conclusions about myself young From the cold stares and the air of disappointment “Every Silverlining has a cloud” was how I braced myself Trained myself to prepare for the worst This safety suit was my comfort When the temperature rose and fell…

What does it mean to possess this moment? Is it in the swayback of the trail When you taste the iron of your breath? But keep pushing on- Was it how you pulled my hair tight?! In that Rolling Rising Crescendo of us? The heat of your unexpected hardness acquiescing to me–  Maybe, now Comfortable…

She struck a match Lit the lamp Drew in a breath Experiences compassion A lovely expression Flashing On her face Time to take on the Sea Ascending her mind To the sky Like a navigator Sailing through All the stars Possibly Venus and Mars In flight On this night A precious Temperance While circling the…

When you can’t look on the bright side, I will sit with you in the dark

Last night your cat sat curled like dead leaves, against your back. Her coat stippled, orange and black, colors on the white spread I cannot forget. It pulled into me– those nights she would jump between us–Ghost Dancer– interrupting our love. You’d rise, laughing, your own body as pale, take the cat into the hall,…

The times are frail; as they come dodging back in racing back in like a speeding bullet ready to be free. It’s hard to feel comfort. The times they are scattered and have holes. Here is the night, here is the day And we take small Bits Of thread And fuse them to the here;…

Nothing missing Everything absent. Reminiscing baskets, full of fragments. All is present. Nothing missing. Thanksgiving who’s forgiving? 9/11 spent in heaven. Frequent torment. Grave decent. Chance event, Who repents? Human thunder. Pulls us under. Spirit’s full of wonder. Grows younger.

This lady has found a way not to see, To carve out an oasis of calm She declares this her safe zone. She shuts out the visions of goblins and jailors But neither can she see the open doors Or the cracks where the light gets in. This is the genius of fight or flight…