Hospital bed

It is difficult to keep track of everyone's names: the physical therapist, the occupational therapist, the nurse, the specialists added into the mix. Most days I remember who I am. I am grateful.

The hospital bed

Is next to

The dining room table.

The various therapy people

Come and go.

I come and go

From several doctors

Some who have been added

To the list

Here we are

All of us

An amazing array.

George

What's in a name? So much.

It’s a name

But oh so much more.

My life has been punctuated

With Georges,

The first in a long string

Of presidents.

Washington

Of course

On the one dollar bill.

But also

My great grandfather

In Napoleon, North Dakota.

Bank president.

We have a family dollar bill

He signed.

Back then

Legal tender was signed

By bank presidents.

It is framed

In my brother’s house

In Minnesota.

These are singular

Georges.

When my brother and boy cousins

Were born

My grandmother offered a ransom

If one of them was given the name

Of George.

No one took the bait.

Years later she had a dog,

A Maltese,

She named him George,

Drove him around

In her Cadillac.

Since then I have known

Many Georges

They join a long line

Of singularities.

Confession

What's in a name? A lot.

I have not been kind

To the weeds in my yard.

They all have names.

I have not bothered

To learn them.

Instead I have lumped them

Into the category

Of things

Which must be pulled,

Which must be removed,

So other named plants

May flourish.

This year my yard is full

Of unnamed weeds

A rich variety

Of weeds

With a scattering of intentional

Named plantings.

I have not been kind

To the weeds.

I have not learned their names.

This week I was introduced

To Creeping Charlie

He has a rather delightful way

Of tendrilling through the grass,

Anchoring his way with rootlets.

I have not been kind.

I will be kinder.

I will learn more names

As I go.

I look at the days ahead

I learn a whole new set of things.  This does not mean forgetting to spread the love, even if only from the blue recliner.  There are different ways to practice presence.

I look at the days ahead

Name the things

That absolutely require

My presence,

Reschedule the rest,

Spread my love

Beyond and beyond

Save what I can.

Lose

What must be lost.

Remember to spread the love

Even if only

From the seat

Of my blue chair.

Rhythm on the side

Last night

I was invited on stage

To play

With the Rolling Stones.

I provided extra rhythm

Off to the side.

The Stones were all

My age

But men

Of course.

Somehow I knew them all

In my dreams.

Awake now,

I have no idea.

I’ve never been good

With the names

Of supposed

Famous people.

Last night

I could name them all

And offered rhythm

On the side.

Snow #108

All snow is, of course, not alike.  This is snow hitherto unknown.  I name it 108... just because.  I am at work figuring my 11:15 client will not show.  Somehow what matters is that I am here, in my office, prepared for normal things, even if normal things do not come to pass.  I forgot my 2013 calendar at home, though my January 2014 schedule is in it.  I have my 2014 calendar in hand.  It is filled with blank pages, white as driven snow, though I do not know exactly what driven snow looks like.  Perhaps it is snow #109.

Everyone agrees

This is not

Wet

Heart attack snow,

But fluff and drift

Almost soap flake snow.

Snow numbered

108

Of the 107 kinds of snow.

It was never recorded

Before.

This snow deserves its own

Particular name.

The sun showed briefly

Through the clouds

At North Avenue

And Glen Ellyn Road.

Snow 108 drifted across

The pale disk

Named itself

New

Completely new.

Still it falls.

Perfect name

Drat and bother.  The name that came to me on 355, one of my favorite places for inspiration, was perfect.  Except... it seems it is someone else*s perfect too.  And he or she has laid claim to the name.  Actually it*s a he and a she... they have laid claim to the name.  I wonder if they were driving on 355 and got there first.

I found the perfect name

For a private practice.

It arrived on the way

To domestic violence training

On 355.

Some of my best ideas

Have come

On 355

In the automatic toll lane.

Perhaps

There is a story there,

Perhaps a reason

This might be.

When I was safely off the road

I wrote down

All the particulars.

The next day I googled the name.

There is a newer private practice

With the same name

A mile away.

I told you it was good.

I found the perfect name.

It is not mine.