a ritual to start the work week
just is just is just is just
when lived when felt when blood when dust
earth from flame to heal from blade
be true be fair renew remade
will can burn can hurt can harm
of heart of home of art of arm
born to bear forgive to know
beget be good regret regrow
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
hawk over highway, perched and eyeing
like clouds withholding rain or ballots
boxed and stacked before the cast, standing
and pacing, not running nor flying,
steeping, weak and strengthening, not quite
complete, still turning, survived, alive,
but not yet thriving
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
Please hold me I can’t say my name
he stutters from under our blame
as he unfurls his arm
praying I’ll do no harm
and prescribe more than state-funded shame.
Please hold our hurt in your heart
and consider how you played your part
and that changing the cast
can’t rewrite the past
and empathy is just the start.
Please hold all our lines are busy
and we don’t know how long it’ll be
all beds full, budgets tapped
rivers dry, spirits sapped
when there’s no care to spare are we free?
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
feeling is believing
is knowing
is known
thru skin and thru nerve
into flesh
and bone
we move by emotion
creation
and flow
sensation shapes us
prepares us
to grow
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
exhaust me
don’t let me catch my breath
leave me gasping
run me down
run me ragged
show me how it feels to lose myself
lose my head
leave this body
bury it in heaving
break this shell
feed us the pieces
make us grow
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
Shadows of leaves, standing
before the mango sunrise,
shimmer across the bookshelf,
indistinct sequins cleansing
night’s rough spots from
our shared body. Curious,
isn’t it? How we wake
and walk and wonder,
when the answers slide
so simply into our rooms
each morning.
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
Summer storms cheer us —
thunder hugging our silent
solitude from us.
Rain reminds us of
us — its weight and nourishment
ours to bear and share.
Not tears, raindrops won’t
fall alone and we — we must
feel them together.
love notes
a ritual to start the work week
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.
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.
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
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
