moments

moments

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

December 2020

 


and who are we to be so blessed to have pie

to have clothing in a closet, shoes under the bed

a bed with flannel sheets : heat and hot water at the ready

who are we not to know how blessed we are 

to remember how it is we came in 

wrapped and delivered

wanted

xo




Sunday, November 1, 2020

 


 November 2020

hot peppers & Saint Francis
the birds tongues afire
wings ablaze
the dropped feathers
are warm to the touch
I weave them into my hair
and wait for the glow

xo



Sunday, October 4, 2020



October 2020

cool mornings with long shadows 
long shadows with darker reminders
darker reminders of this time in history 
time in history unraveling we are living now
living now with angst, sorrow, and uncertainty
uncertainty taints our daily decisions and plans
decisions and plans are made and made again
again we hold on to the ones we love
we love our people for being them
being them means all ways
all ways is always
xo


 

Wednesday, September 2, 2020


 
September 2020


Light shifts & days grow softer & shorter & you wonder where time went.

There's mist & fog & wet shoes & socks & popovers from the oven.

And still the angst of a world full of grief & loneliness & illness & strife 

& what do you or I hold on to, who do we love, with wild abandonment ?

I urge you to look up & down when you walk not simply just ahead

& when you do turn to look behind remember where it is you came from.

Most likely it had something to do with LOVE. xo








Saturday, August 1, 2020





August begins with memories of loved ones. Today Jeannette would have been 104. She is missed every day in the flesh, in her kind humor, in the love she showered upon all. The smacking of her lips after the first sip of a cold beer. Her raspberry jam and lemon cake. Chicken and biscuits. Plaid Bermuda shorts. The trust she offered and accepted. 

And tomorrow my dad too celebrates a milestone, he will be 89. He will read, thoroughly, a new National Geographic, he will nap, maybe fall asleep with his Sudoku book hitting the carpet. He will make mom a cup of tea and ask us not to travel in the heat. 

As the calendar opens to this new month and these times of great uncertainty and angst in the world I'll hold tight to my heart and the love that is shared. I hope you do the same. xo



Wednesday, July 1, 2020


July 2020

it's my birth month
and this year I feel ever blessed
to have so much love in my life & heart
such a complicated time to look in and recognize 
the abundance that surrounds me and holds me to place
yesterday it was simply by taking an inventory of our pantry
touching the things that nourish and sustain energy
and the goodness of taste and texture and yum
I whine for closet a place to store things
but then I look around me 
and see the things
that keep me
alive
xo




Monday, June 1, 2020



hope ~ such a small word to consider so much ~
this and the vast holding of the weight of our hearts 
as we struggle to make sense of the senseless 
~ near impossible at times. 

hope, in the wait, may only be one tiny thing ~ 
I beg you to get down on your knees 
and know it's there waiting to unfurl itself. 

xo






Friday, May 1, 2020




the mural found me

it was pressed against 
a cement wall

I'd walked through that alley
many many times
always going someplace
a bit too fast

thinking I'd like to create
something I could hold in my hands
offer to you
maybe fall in love, 
all over again

the red eye of the sea star 
called me to a halt
I touched it then placed my finger
to my wrist
then forehead

the wall was wet
not paint but morning air
thick enough to chew on
when I spit out blood 
I knew what I had to do

xo















Wednesday, April 1, 2020





it's the itty tiny things 
that will keep us sane
the watering of plants
know and remember
to keep a thing alive
turn toward the light
 test soil temperature 
 give thanks and love 

xo


At our house it is indeed the itty things:
one egg instead of two for breakfast
are we rationing or in communion?
of so many others with less or none.

We eat a healthy meal mid-afternoon 
it serves as both lunch and dinner
it allows us time to digest in all ways
and though listening doesn't get easier 
and the news shared is heart-breaking
and unknowns stack up like sad numbers
we still sit and hold hands.

xo










Sunday, March 1, 2020




the birds didn't leave this winter 
they didn't fly south
like so many of our neighbors

they stayed and sang
roosted in the winterberry bush
where we watched and listened
from our small round kitchen table

fluffy bodied tiny things
holding on to the bare bones
of a bush that should have been pruned long ago

everything exposed
waiting for the mighty sun to gain 
length and strength once again

and still they sing 
xo








Thursday, January 9, 2020




Twenty-Twenty

Normal Sharpness 

And just what does this mean?
I'm not talking about the eye chart 
or the way you look at me.
I'm not talking about seeing near or far.

I talking about your fingernails scratching my back.
Simple loving ways you touch me.
Your arm flung across my body at the stop sign,
and in the mornings 
with your open palm feeling 
the thud and thump of me.

New moment, new day, new year, 
new decade, new century.
What else will prove normal against the sharpness
of being alive, being here ~ now? 
xo


Image result for snellen chart