Like a whirlpool

For my friends, all of them.

Like a whirlpool
The Church as a whole
Roils
With new understandings
Caught up
With old understandings
Meanwhile
Two women
Walk down the aisle
In wedding dresses
Two men
Stand before
The minister
Make their promises
To one another.
I wish it weren't
So hard.
Like a whirlpool
The church
Roils
Around
And
Around
Once again.
Two women.
Two men.
The Church

Reasons to return

Reasons to return

To school:
Your brain
Will not atrophy;
To reading:
New ideas
Will dance
In your head;
To napping:
Rest cures
A lot
Of ills
You have never named
Before,
As long as
You don't sleep
Your life
Away;
To spending time
With animals,
Any animals,
They are so much
More simple
Than we are,
Simplicity
Ranks high
In the order
Of things.

The rest is yet to come

Sometimes we get trapped into thinking what will come next.

And now
This morning
Now
Is all
There ever is
Ever.
Our childhood is
What it was.
Our future
Remains
To be seen,
Known,
Purchased.
Our loved ones
Continue
Loved
Thank God.
Here we are
Now.
What remains
To be lived
A yellow brick road
Long, winding
Before us
Scarecrows
Tin men
Witches
Along the way
Still
For now
Here we are,
This morning
Let's not
Get ahead
Of ourselves.
The rest is yet
To come.

The white room

Every other Friday Danuta helps me with the white room. The other Fridays, she cleans the house.

I hired someone
To help me tackle
The space
We lovingly call
The white room
White carpet
White walls
The door has been shut
For years
Except when we
Store a box there
Today we did
Two more boxes
Two more boxes
To go
And then come
The books
Not an easy feat
For a book person.







=

Gracious?

So often we think of ourselves as gracious or momentarily grumpy. 

Gracious
Versus ungracious
or simply
Momentarily grumpy.
We all
Have things to learn
Often one state
Comes more easily.
Sometimes
It's the time
We are found
As we walk in
Or out
The door.

My idol

I grew up with Mr. Rogers and his closet full of sweaters.

I take my sweater
Gray
Out of the closet
Pull on my boots
Brown
Go prepared to meet
The world,
Go prepared
To invite the world
In,
It's a wonderful day
In the neighborhood
A beautiful day
In the neighborhood
Will you be
My neighbor?
Won't you be
My neighbor?
Will you?
Won't you?
Today my sweater
Is gray
Tomorrow
It may be
Red.

Heart stone

Therapy, a beginning, though we began long ago

I must remember
The red iron ore heart stone
On the glass table.

The fountain flowing
In the background of the space
Sun through the windows

I locate myself
Green plaid chair, red soft pillows
At my back, my lap.

He locates himself
Pillow at his back, black chair,
Waits for me to talk.

New trope

For the friend who gave me this gift today.

When we come out
And
Into our own,
Life is fuller
There,
For us
And for those around.
It is tempting
To believe
The trope
We have finally
Figured it out
Still
There is no real figuring
Until we come out
And
Into our own.

Haiku walk

Taking small bites.

Find a location
Which commands
Your attention.
It may be large.
It may be small.
Write one haiku
After another,
Maybe twenty,
Maybe thirty.
Most places hold
More
Than one.
Come home.
Read them.
One may capture
Your experience
More than another.
Save them all.
Read them again
Tomorrow.
Save another.

Take another walk

Next week.

Repeat

Parking space

For Gretchen

When you offer
The parking space
You have just left
We are grateful.
Oh
So grateful.
It's the small things
That swell
Into
Larger things.

Snow tracks

I love the fox tracks in a line. How do they do that?

Bunny
Squirrel
Fox
I add my walker wheels
To them.
We join
Together
In the snow,
Tracks
Left behind.

Winter brown

We never know

Winter brown still cold

Snow gone but may come again

Maybe ice or not.

Think smaller

I knotted a net which was way too big.

The net I knotted
Would catch
Too many fish,
The wrong kind
Of fish.
I start over again
With a smaller net
Smaller knots.
Think smaller,
More specific.
This is what I have
A consultant for.
Throw the net
Off the other side
Of the boat.
She says.

A goodly heritage

As I think about my great grandfather, Thomas Sadler Roberts, part of my "goodly heritage," I remember others in my line who are part of the heritage I own. 

A goodly heritage
Is not enough
Unless
We add to it.
Unless we add
Our crumb
Fed to the birds
Around us
Seed
In the feeder.
A goodly heritage
Is not always
Children
Though we might
Name them so.
That is up to them.
A goodly heritage
Is meant to pass
As it might.
Words are mine.
A goodly heritage.

No mud, no lotus

Thank you, Donovan Ackley, III, for this Buddhist quotation. Entirely new to me. A gift.

I discover new things
Every day
Or they
Discover me.
No mud
No lotus
How right
Is this.
First come
The boots coated
In mud
Tramped through
The house
Then the lotus blooms
When I open
My eyes
No mud
No lotus.

Melt

Just as the weather has its way, so does water.

Watching the snow
Begin its melt
This will not be
The last time.
These things
Come and go
Go and come.
Water
In so many forms
We can only watch.
We are not
In charge.
Water
Has its ways.

Pfft

Our fears will catch us if we let them. Pfft

What if
I market myself
And no one
Buys?
What if
The world says
Pfft
If that is
In the world's
Vocabulary?
Which world
Is my market
Anyhow?
What if I need
To sell
Something else
To a completely
Different world?
There's no telling
All the markets
Out there.
My brain may not
Be thinking
Big enough
Or perhaps
Small enough.
Pfft I say
Pfft.