January

 

Drips grey like a leaky fountain pen
Spills battleship, concrete, slate and
Every shade in between
Blanketing the tops of trees, no leaves
Vulnerable, branches bear, shaking at the root
In the frigid air
Suspended in a cavernous sky
Frozen
Like a
Monochromatic monstrosity
The canvas wide and bleak
She sees
Sees past the bullying mid-winter blues
Yes, January
Keeps a secret
Hides it in the vortex of a
Cross- continental
Arctic blast.
Longing and desire
Grow in
Fallow fields
Laid to rest and wait
Patient in her knowing that the future is redeemable
There is hope
Oh what restless souls we are
Missing the beauty buried in the
Aching earth
Cold and lonely for new growth
But January says
Hold on
I am the doorway through which you step
Gateway
From cold and void
To feasts and merriment
Hold on fast in dormant days
And know the season
Of rejoicing lies this way.
Oh January
Help us see
The beauty that is in the days
So cold and gray, seeming barren
Nestled in a quiet snowy wait
Point us to the future where
Color spills out new birth like grace
On the other side of
A world
Colored but for a moment
In endless shades of grey.

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Joining friends Sandra and Deidra

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The Bicycle

The Bicycle

A ride waited, pregnant
It would tell me when it was time
To labor
Pedal up and down
Run over a million sycamore balls
Like dollhouse sized
Speed bumps

The ride would woo me
Invite me, tell me when it was time
To roll through town
Just in time to see the children scream
In sheer delight

And we are one today
One age, one child
One girl, one woman
Metal melds the years between

I passed the lumpy dog, lazy hound
Looking like a lost coat piled up in the yard
I announced that I’d lost mine and they grinned
Everyone’s a child today
Or plum tuckered out
From play

The sky called for a break
The blues and grays
Announced
We had time
To run outside and play
The town seemed to have a fire-drill
Everyone spilled out at once
After the cold, the threat of rain

And I have my bicycle
On which I can forget that I am
Not the child
Who’ll be called for dinner in awhile
Tucked in post-prayers
And seven requests for water
After the bed-bugs and boogey men
Are scared away.
And I love’s you’s are said
And I love you to Jupiter and back

No I am woman
With handle bars in hand
And a seat at home
Warm still
From meeting with a friend
Who’s cancer is in her breast
And uncertainty is lodged in her chest
But hope clings, spills from her lips.

I can sit up on my seat

Closer to the heavens
And pray, intercede
With the whirl of wind in my ears
Making noises like the empty conch at the sea
Making tears as
The wind splashes on my ears and in my face

I hid the fact that I wanted to stay and play
My bicycle and I

We are all children
Sitting perched upon our bicycles
Pedaling as hard as we can
Just trying to

Make our way back home.

In time for meatloaf, again
And
To find our lost dog in the yard.

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The Encouragement To Go

Day one shadow

The Encouragement To Go

Sometimes we need the encouragement to step out and into, away or toward.  Sometimes we need a pull or push. The woo, the whisper. The invitation. A delightful plea.

Somedays we hunger for a call. A voice. Excitement. Permission. To hear the old spoken anew.
Somedays we need a new friend, an old friend too. A collision of yeses. A harmony of go’s.

Sometimes we need the repetition of the familiar played to the accompaniment of strings, not brass. Italics not bold. Gentle, not tough. The solo, not the symphony.

Some seasons we respond to age and wisdom not fleeting fancies or current trends. The rose with the thorn, not a re-constituted hybrid.

And we bend in to hear what may have been said all along. Yet suddenly we listen, and hear, and the invitation to go sinks down to the bottommost place of our soul.

To wander and wonder.
To run and soar.
To find and be found.
To discover and uncover.
To rest but not falter.
To store up but not hoard.
To enjoy and be joyful.

Some days we crave a soul full of poetry. To read and weep. To weep and exhale. To make art and be made by it too. To create and be re-created.

And so we go.
Whether out and beyond. To the new and to notice. Or close by to the familiar. Extending or pretending. Dreaming and imagining.

We go. Out and not in.
To others, not ourselves.
In charity and love.
With art and a song.
Seeking the beauty and beautiful. The grace and the gracious.

But in all of our ways, we long for the encouragement of another to just go.
From the Father, the friends, a poet, a child, another, a mother.
Go with glee. Go in love. Go to serve.
Encouraged, awakened, arisen, alive.
We go.
Together.
Never alone.

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Joining Jennifer and Lyli

The Reinvention of Cliches

The Reinvention of Cliches

Blow with me new life into the old stale words
Jump start the broken-down rust heap on the side
Of the road
Propped up on bricks
That is language we left for dead

Re-energize the turn of phrase that is stale
As an old loaf of white bread
That lost its twisty tie-y top
Corners blueing
Left for dead

And just because it’s cliche
Is it false
I would stand on the corner of Broad and Main
Placard in hand
Proclaiming the degrees to which
I loathe cliche

Pitiful they were in my sight
Perhaps It is time to
Re-think
Some of my favorites
Need a second chance.

Starting today
With thinking outside the box
And low hanging fruit
And the tip of the iceberg

Some of these are as old as the hills
I know
And I am frightened to death to even
Suggest to you that
Every cloud has a silver lining
Or that time heals all wounds

Only time will tell if there is
Merit to this

Maybe on second thought
Lemons from lemonade should stay
Dead and buried.

Maybe all bets are off
Afterall
On this idea

On second thought
Maybe I
Always look on the bright side
And am blinded by the light

When really what I had in mind
Was saving the phrase

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
And keep it simple stupid
And simple is best
And necessity really is the mother of invention

And then again
Maybe banging one’s head
Against a brick wall
Is better left for dead.

Along with other
Blasts from the past

I was wrong
To try to build a better mousetrap
Hoping the world would  beat a path to my door
I cry uncle
And crawl sheepishly

Back to the drawing board.