Thursday, March 6, 2014

A Good Scrubbing

some days—
the flecks and chunks
of insufficiencies,
insults and incredibilities,
splatter on: salt and slush
to cloud the mind’s shine
coat the heart’s lustre
and create a predominance of grime.
But in moves the rain, forgiving
the hopeful torrent
the graceful wash
that buff me up real bright
and set me on another day
—some nights
one just needs a good scrubbing

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Pages open, open, unfinished
Coldly bright and screaming
Branches blanketed, donning robes
Cold and clean and beaming
Let the snow drift down
Upon the trees
And cover, too, these pages,
Dead digital leaves,
Man’s cruel tools—
Memories of magic natural
Christen, enrobe, grace
The space ‘tween mind and soul

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Lantern-Hearted Girl

Old glass lantern, beveled, bright
Once a jewel blazing
Through shadow and frost
A warm and welcome sight
Since benighted, cracked with shame,
Clouded from selfish smoke,
Wracked with rattling pains—
If I cast it in the ocean
to grind within the surf
Will it crumble?
If I leave it to scorching sunlight
pierced by noonday rays
Will it burst?
Or will the water flow like justice
Scrubbing off the grime,
The glass re-fuse by 
Faithfulness stretching from the skies?
Can my lantern glow once more
And pulse with shimmering life
Though it has been neglected
To dust instead of light?



with props to 2 Corinthians 4, Florence + the Machine, Langston Hughes, Third Day, and “Once Upon a Time”

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Fish Out of the Sea

arcs of white water, light
falls of stone up-grown,
solemn in memoriam
silently observing
the water’s rushing, murmuring
the quiet and the whispering:
through tapping feet and laughter,
solitary sitters, troops of groups,
couples camped, and childish patters
—tonight there’s a mere few
then two
the white the light the stone the whispers
beneath the wounded moon
silver surfing patina swells,
caps of white, water, light

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Miracles

You walked me ‘cross the water
You made the lions purr
You spoke and with a shimmer
The sun infused the dingy world
The trees flashed winning mouths of green
The still lake blinked and shone
But none these wonders have I seen
Though looked and walked and lived
The real miracle is
Amidst the beauty, gifts, the grace
I’ve festered something else
The opposite of worthy, praise—
sordid fears and self
And say now as John Donne:
Rip me up and root me out and make me feel
Yourself

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Construction Site


the breeze blew long
heightening my hairs
hallowing, harrowing, harbinging
But I stood tall
and long
And when it began to rain
to rain
I built my walls
I built my roof
And I stood tall
and long
and long
Until it began to pound
(in my head)
to crack
(in my heart)
And I cowered and shook
and shook
and shook
Behind walls growing thicker
like fingernails left too long
like layers of moss upon moss
too strong for
the sounding, the pounding, the hounding
And when the thunder ceased
it ceased
(over or merely muffled?)
I stayed within
calming
and preening
And I stood tall
and long
But the sun burned hot
and loud
without me
And I stood tall
and long
and long
And never knew—
within my very crevice
beyond my walls and halls and moss and shade
something else grew, too,
and taller
and longer
and stronger—
just beyond my walls

Monday, September 17, 2012

Upon the Occasion of Thunder

It rattled as if to shatter
the window pane behind
to make me jump and fray my nerves
Then soothed its violence
among the trees,
pattering, whispering to the leaves
If Thor turns such a gentle lover
Come Thunder, if you please.