Grown giant in stillness, amplified
by emptiness, we dream clarity
into being. Seeing warnings
unheeded, breaths held, untaken,
made mile-markers by mistaken
graces — troubles doubled, trembles
trebled — humorless tremors rumble
through our femurs, form rumors
that splinter our fragile frames, bones
turned thorns. Arise — we chose floating
over flying, clouds over skies; these
notes — crumbs tumbling from
pockets, blazes lighting ways through
mazes — firm up our churning
stomachs, settle our guts to clear
these ruts and ride nearer our
fear — that cliff-edge begging to be
tested.

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

Your match
need
not
burn
for
long
nor
feed
some
high
fire;
just
show
them
its
glow.

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

lush grows my love
in the face of the fire
unfettered by fences
undeterred by desire

the yearning to yoke
our learning our bounds
births scorched earth
begets barren ground

nourishing freedom
needs hoes to be mended
for greed can flourish
in gardens untended

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

Day breaks under the deep amber prairie sunset
as a darkening haze hangs over the hill-less horizon.

My heart, like tree-limbs heavy with memory,
reaches skyward for light, for any opening.

And the faint cry of a new branch aching into existence
echoes from afar in the palm of my hand.

---

love notes
a ritual to start the work week

How the night?
And how the day?
How the April?
And how the May?
How when summer
comes for June
does the light up there
burn through the moon?

How the fire?
And how the well?
How the prayer?
And how the spell?
How when you
envelope me
am I more I
as we turn we?

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

To know the middle, we must know the end,
but so few finishes tip their approach,
their modes and momentum, magic, besides.

How then can we calculate our halflife? 
How come we to comprehend our climax?
To reconcile our first words with our last?

Perhaps by knitting, looping in loose ends;
or gardening, tending blooms, weeding beds.
Perchance, to know, to be, we dance instead.

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

1 line
2 words
3 points
4 songs
5 stars
6 lungs
7 sighs
8 stares
9 knives
10 wounds
11 wars
12 doves
13 trees
14 groves
15 plots
16 peaks
17 slopes
18 gains
19 gone
20 tales
21 trails
22 tries

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

They come in waves:
the heat and hope,
meaning, mizè:
spheres of spirals
that spike and poke
as they ebb, flow:
balls of bands, gas
that snap and spurt:
their consistence
hidden behind
their confluence.

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

all’s well that tends well
that cares well, that serves
all’s well that bends well
that changes, that curves
all’s well that sends well
that gives well, compounds
all’s well that mends well
that heals well, rebounds

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

Moon left, pulled under toe
to surrender longing. Lover alone
also through spin, wood backwards,
flesh a dream. Skin-time,
neon-green, bone-like
shadow. Death follows cautiously,
flame walk also. Also,
left switches light, right?

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love notes
a ritual to start the work week

To close the loop,
press down slightly
on your past self,
allowing your current
path to slide over
and cover it completely.

Use just enough pressure
to depress the trigger
hidden carefully beneath
your hardened shell
— some cracking is normal —
releasing the awareness
valve to let growth flow.

Do not force it.

Too much effort could
result in permanent
damage to the seal
causing ongoing leakage,
a sudden descent or
unpredictable departure.

If you miss the moment
and continue on the same
circle, wait patiently for
the opening to come around
again.

---

love notes
a ritual to start the work week