Have you noticed?

It's important to pay attention to small things.

Have you noticed?

This country is more

Than hell

In a hand basket?

People sit up

And notice

And speak.

Congress may not make

Individual decisions

We like

But there’s that one judge

On the West Coast

He made a decision

All by himself

The ripples have traveled

Across the country.

Have you noticed?

Edge

With everything going on these days, I try to listen to everything. It is difficult. Of course, like everyone, I think my edge is dominant.

I listen

To the weather,

To my feet.

There is so much

To hear

On all sides

Even though

I would prefer

To choose three sides

Maybe two.

There is so much

To hear,

And I,

I think

I might have

Some edge

Over others.

Of course I don’t.

Still

From time to time

I think the edge

Is mine.

Half-time priest

I am now receiving my pension. They have some understanding that the years I have put in as a priest are full-time years, no matter what I was paid. I am grateful.

There is no such thing

As a half-time priest.

She may be paid

Half-time,

Spend

The another half

Holding hands

With parishioners

In the hospital.

There is no such thing

As a half-time priest.

Hours never count

The same

From place to place

Time to time,

Behind the altar

Or under.

The next thing

I still wonder who I will be when I grow up. Being 61, I have had several conversations with many who have the same question. Here we all are, doing some version of daily writing, or painting, or thinking and tossing it out into the world to see what comes back. Sometimes something does. Sometimes not. Here we all are, figuring out the next thing.

When I write

The next thing

Send it out into the world

Blog

Email

It does not matter

How many

How much

Who reads it.

I do not have

A publisher

To please,

To determine whether

The audience

Is large enough

For a run of 100.

I write for a run

Of one

Maybe two.

This

Is the next thing.

It is a reminder

To myself.

Bad things

Value judgments. Keep breathing.

She says

They come in threes:

Bad things.

I wonder

Who gets to name them

Bad or good.

Are good things numbered

As well?

Do good things

Come in sevens?

Do good things

Wait in the wings

To be named

Good?

Do we wait endlessly

One

Two

Three

Breathe

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Breathe again

Breathe breathe breathe.

Tarantella

My beloved read Ibsen in college, unlike me. He told me the name of the dance in The Doll's House. I have always read a lot, but somehow missed Ibsen. I knew the squirrels were dancing a wild dance, converting the backyard into one massive dance floor.

Ibsen

Was never part

Of the literature I read

In college

Or after.

I watch the squirrels

Chase each other

In the backyard.

It is a wild dance

Across the lawn,

The jumps from tree

To tree,

Branch to branch.

Even though Ibsen

Was never part

Of what I read,

It strikes me

That the squirrels

Are involved

In the tarantella,

And I,

I get to watch.

Rules of Confession

Grateful. Grateful. Grateful,

Now more than ever

I do not receive insurance

For anything I do

Or say.

The privacy of my office

Remains

The privacy of my office.

I have never been

So grateful

To not have

A license,

Only continued training

And supervision.

My office remains

Under the altar

In a church.

The rules of confession

Apply here,

Just as they apply

When I hear a confession

In the chapel.

The rules of confession.

I do everything

As the priest I have been

For over thirty years.