Tuesday, February 27, 2018

underside


















isn’t it true
that the most beautiful part of something
(or someone)

often lies 
beneath
the showy surface

and were it not
for autumn’s wind
and a “letting go”

might never 
be seen
at all


"She had blue skin,
And so did he,
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by-
And never knew."

     -Everything On It by Shel Silverstein


Monday, February 19, 2018

bramble, (at the edge of the healing woods)























it’s messy

a myriad of thickets and
thorns

tangled
and mangled

like broken societies

disturbed and
disturbing

(the whole perturbed world
for that matter)

it's "all gone to hell in a hand basket"
my grandfather used to say

but did you know
that long ago

Someone
saw something

worth saving


“And they laid him in a manger because there was no room for him in the inn.”  Luke 2:7

When i reflect upon the tragedy in our country this past week (the Florida school shooting), i can’t help but think of the innocent child laid in a manger those many short years ago. Sent down to this broken world to make a way for us through the thorny thickets…… to the healing woods beyond.


Monday, February 12, 2018

a coyote, sent












I step out
onto the deck
this early
february morning

to clear my
thoughts
and leave go
the heaviness
that presses close

perhaps if i 
put it into a prayer
it will float away 
into the cold blue sky

but before i have time 
to utter a word

he is there

barely visible 
through the swaying 
pasture grass, golden

and somehow

his presence
takes hold of my
heart

and the heaviness
therein departs

as he disappears
to the waiting woods 

"Coyotes move within a landscape of attentiveness.  I have seen their eyes in the creosote bushes and among mesquite trees.  They have watched me.  And all the times that I saw no eyes, that I kept walking and never knew, there were still coyotes.  When I have seen them trot away, when I have stepped from the floorboard of my truck, leaned on the door, and watched them as they watched me over their shoulders, I have been aware for that moment of how much more there is.  Of how I have only seen an instant of a broad and rich life."
~Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

"Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear."  Is. 65:24




Monday, February 5, 2018

repair men

























they came last week
while i was doing
a jigsaw puzzle

i could hear their voices
in my husbands office

something about
download speed
roku
and perhaps
a dozen other terms 
i have no use for

but i liked their voices

and i had the thought
that i would like to see
their faces

look into their eyes
and see the reflections of youth 
and soul

i would like to say
hi

but instead 
i picked up 
another puzzle piece

and before i knew it
they were
gone

and soon after
the puzzle
done

back in its box
on a shelf
in the basement





“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”  C.S. Lewis