and there
you are again
in memory
a bird at night
I think I see fly
from tree to tree
a shadow really
a blink
a blur of air
a longing
it isn’t fair to miss
you, like this
This Missing
20 Tuesday Jan 2026
Posted in Poetry
Tag Archives: Loss
The Geranium
06 Tuesday Jan 2026
Posted in Poetry
I lit that house up like fire,
With stringed lights,
So that everyone who drove by
Had to look in.
It was a long time ago,
And before it was popular.
Year round lights, as if to say,
What happens here is a delightful mystery.
Once upon a time,
A man bought a house next door.
He was from Portland,
And thought the lights
Would make a good neighbor.
(He told me so later.)
Many years have passed,
And now I’m looking back,
Beneath the lights,
Wondering about the belief
That strung them, tree from tree,
That lit the fire in the chimenea,
And laughed into the late hours
With old neighbors, drawn to light,
Like a lone windowsill geranium
In a colorless city,
Eventually fallen from its perch,
Broken, shattered clay of pot,
Roots reaching for a smattering of air.
I Was Wrong
02 Friday Jan 2026
Posted in Poetry
I thought she was like me,
The practicer of goodbyes,
The mover on’er
The cutter of moldering ties.
I was wrong.
Had I known how long
She’d still be broken,
Would I have broken, too,
What remaining pieces in me
Were still able to be broken:
Lost shards, tossed about,
On the floor of my soul.
Some things are too hard to see,
They must come slowly,
Like our failure to answer,
Unanswered prayers,
Or to stop the cruel rendering
Of her chronically tender heart.
Traditions
28 Sunday Dec 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Christmas, Death, Death Poems, Loss, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Purpose, Survival, Traditions
The traditions remain:
An old family tree,
The making
Of Gingerbread houses,
Wreaths, and lights,
A Christmas fondue–
And I ask,
Will they get me through this?
On the other side of the shadows,
Is my shadow,
I take that by faith, too.
He said, I can’t find my purpose.
I wondered out loud,
Is there a purpose?
Besides surviving, that is.
And the smaller things we cling to,
Making them bigger things–
An outsized portion of our existence
Is in the minutes, winding down.
To wallow in the shadows
Is, perhaps, a luxury.
It comes to this:
At first, we know everything,
Then, nothing,
And at last,
We are okay
With our lack.
Those Who Do Not Leave
27 Saturday Dec 2025
Posted in Poetry
Everyday I carry him inside me,
And beside me, like the robin
Who should have gone south,
But is dangerously late to leave,
Eating the berries from my tree.
I carry him to the sink in the morning,
And in the mirror, I see his crease
Above my nose, or the one wrinkle
By my right eye, under his hair.
I carry his burden of wanting to know–
Too much, at the risk of happiness,
Even expecting something bad
All the time, in the midst of good.
What excuse do I have, except being his daughter,
To carry such personal things?
And yet, to lay him down, to walk away
Into the lightness of my own shadow;
I do not want to leave his burden alone.
So, I will stay here and hope
The winter is not too hard,
And that the days, growing longer,
Are not ungenerous to one lost,
Scavenging forgotten berries.
Introduction
26 Sunday Oct 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
being human, Death, Family, Gratitude, Hope, Humanity, Life, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Souls, Spirit, Suffering, Survival, Women's Poems, Yearning
What is love,
But an unanswered question?
I do love the way
You listened to that note—
It hung in our mutual air
A moment we shared.
As if a matter of life
And death
Because it was that matter
Which consumed us.
And then gone.
I do love the way
You go
Missing.
——
I know love comes broken,
But it took breaking
To teach me.
——
Perhaps, my first love was longing.
And in that desperate hope
Came everything.
—-
And then there was love.
—
And then there was loneliness.
—
And then there was complete despair.
—
And then there was you.
—
Still breaking me.
Because such intensity can only consume.
Thirst and drink, but the glass is always leaking.
Reach and reach, but the hands seem empty.
—
And then there were your arms.
—
And then there was loneliness.
—
My time is winding down to tell you
About being human.
Such a world!
Born into a desperate flesh
And nascent blood.
Will we learn too late
How precious it was to suffer?
—
I would like to introduce myself:
Even as I mourn myself.
Closure
26 Saturday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
he runs away in shame
crimson faced coward
once lover, husband
father, now stranger
denying you closure
as we debate, contemplate
is there any such thing
as an answer
that heals wounds
makes it okay
I say no, and you
believe me and wait
for the pain to fade
What is Poetry (To Me)
26 Saturday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Authenticity, Death, Forgiveness, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Survival, Truth, What is a Poem, Yearning
I prefer poetry
of imperfection
like my life
and its glorious
misdirection
less roses are red
violets are blue
more, what moves you
to cry, to laugh,
to lose sleep,
or fall to your knees
for mercy
Divorce: Finalized
25 Friday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
A little boy who dreamed
his parents in one house,
‘Stay dad, stay’
words from his mouth
but together again
was an impossible ask,
his sins were too great
to be taken back.
Instead, he walked away,
the family was split,
and only God knows
the rest of it.
This Too Shall Pass
23 Wednesday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
though the years soften
pain, like a creek-stone
years of flowing water
a collection of our tears
washing over them
buffering the edges
of our mutual suffering
when it ceases to cry
it will be gone to sand
sifted to the oceans
Dissolution
19 Saturday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Divorce, Family, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Mothers, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Women's Poems
Let me be your soft place
to land, the keeper
of your sorrows,
your homeland.
Wear me like onyx,
giving you the strength
to survive this loss,
the feeling of being tossed
off and abandoned.
My dear, let him go,
but know, his leaving
cannot destroy you.
When We Were Wild Horses
11 Friday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Death, Dying, Hope, Horse Poems, Horse poetry, Horses, Life, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, sentience, Spirit, Survival
Sentient and savant
Invisible wings
We dream of wild horses
The freedom they bring
What it means to survive
And fight, love,
and protect love
The simplicity of
water and grass
The simplicity of
life and death
Confessions
27 Friday Jun 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Death, Forgiveness, Life, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Secrets, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Survival, Truth, Yearning
Would you like to hear a secret,
No obfuscation, no vagary,
A secret, that cuts so deep
It wounds you,
It unwinds you,
Because it is you,
But you want to know,
Yes, know,
It is also in me,
That we carry it together,
In shame, and in sorrow, sure–
But let’s be honest,
There is also pride–
I mean,
We have done what we had to do,
You and me,
Have we not,
And what blame is there
In surviving?
AI Will Not Replace Me
31 Saturday May 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
AI, Authenticity, Death, Death Poems, Hope, Life, Loneliness, Loss, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Yearning
I cannot be imitated,
Nor improved.
AI will not replace me.
I will speak my suffering
Into this world,
As only humans can suffer.
To know death
Is to fear it.
I cannot be reprogrammed,
Nor replaced.
To be human is to end.
We cannot see them again,
Nor touch them.
You cannot imitate
Feeling that alone,
That frightened
Someone else will die.
Kwanzan Cherry, Beautiful Alone
17 Saturday May 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Alone, Hope, Kwanzan Cherry, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Silence, Souls, Strength, Survival, Yearning
Brave little tree,
So far away,
Make friends
With the peonies,
Snowdrops,
Crocus,
And sky;
Let it be
Enough to be
Practically alone
And silent,
Standing against
Wind,
Snow,
The neglect of this world.
Brave little tree,
Please,
Don’t feel lonely.
reposted: the worst thing about dying
02 Wednesday Oct 2024
Posted in Poetry
Missed Opportunities With Her
05 Friday Jan 2024
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Death, Death Poems, decisions, Dying, Hard Decisions, Heartache, Loss, Love, Memory, Now, Piper, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Spirit, Time
The nows you missed with her are real,
But yesterday and tomorrow are not.
What’s done is done, at least,
In this world. What do you want
To take with you to the other side?
Or, be there waiting for you, beyond time?
Tick, tick, tick, then it stops,
What do we find beyond the ticking?
Everything is a choice, even sitting here
Now, click, click, clicking this poem.
Are all poems messages to the great unknown?
Future me, which does not exist,
Might read one, many years from now,
And wonder if she adequately loved
What was sent to her as a gift to be loved.
The real moments: tick tick and click clicking,
That come, come, come to us–
Then disappear,
Like she has.
Resilience
15 Friday Sep 2023
Posted in Poetry
doesn’t mean
you have no pain
it doesn’t mean
you aren’t broken.
it means they hit you,
they went for the knockout–
punch, left you for dead,
but you were still breathing.
now we all wait
for the final round,
(we see you are bleeding),
rise again
walk towards your demon–
(god help the demon)
hey, they’re cheering for you
can you hear them cheering?
Is It Too Soon
16 Wednesday Aug 2023
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Courage, Divorce, Family, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Love Poems, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Strength, Survival, Women's Poems
To talk of the good things
That came of your leaving?
The way it opened up hearts,
And quieted our breathing?
Perhaps, you were too right
For our wrong little world.
Too bright and shiny,
Too unwrinkled.
She leaves the child behind
Is it too soon to say–
(You killed it) and that’s good, too?
Better to be a woman astray
Than a woman living in a fantasy.
Is it too soon to say
she will be stronger,
More beautiful, without you?
Can You Handle the Wilds
05 Saturday Aug 2023
Posted in Poetry
Can you handle the wild birds
Leaving their nests, turbulent
In their need, free and fleeing?
Or the wild keys, dissonant chords,
She plays in the dark hours,
While you are sleeping?
Come out into the storm
And stand with me.
Lightning rarely strikes,
But stand away from the trees.
Can you handle the wilds,
No smile to guide you?
Fragile, wet steps,
Into the dark night.
Can you handle the wilds?
Bits of Poetry 