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: Love
Walking On
17 Saturday Jan 2026
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Children, Family, Generations, Hope, Life, Love, Love Poems, Mercy, Miracles, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Winter, Winter poem, Yearning
we press on, despite,
wait for the light,
live for finding
meaning, like a beacon,
we saw it flash
once, we think
a field was revealed
we ran across barefoot
waved dandelion seeds
a year passed;
we went back, weeds,
high as our kneecaps.
we gather our children
pray for happiness
search for them,
in open fields,
on sunny days
my son said,
here is your grandson
I wanted to cry
with the weight of it.
another son climbed
a rock wall, his ex-lover
shared photos from below.
I thought, will they?
today, it is day, but dark
and we will explore
wet paths through forest,
as I pray for rain.
I Am the Mountain
11 Sunday Jan 2026
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Immovable, Life, Love, Mantra, Mountain Pose, Mt Spokane, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Strength, Survival, yoga
The mountain stands alone,
Unmoved by wind, or snow,
And I stand, arms raised,
In the distant below,
Saying, I am the Mountain.
And whether that’s true,
Or not, I have found it
Today, in this mantra,
And, at least for the moment,
It is my mind’s goal.
I think of all the past ways
People have moved me,
No more, no more,
I am the mountain.
Fallen Angels
07 Wednesday Jan 2026
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Angels, Death, Eternity, Fallen Angels, Forgiveness, God, Grace, Hope, Love, Milton, Paradise Lost, Philip Yancey, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Sin, Sinners, Souls, Spirit, Spirits, Yearning
“I have failed morally and spiritually, and I grieve over the devastation” Philip Yancey
Now the walk begins
Hand in hand, alone
With other fallen
Grace is greatest
Here, in the lonely place
Of our true selves,
Shunned by other men
And our only consolation
Creation, as it sings,
Stings, and wrings our souls:
Which way shall I fly?
In the lowest deep, A lower
Deep, in the heart of it
Weakness. Always, weaker
Than we knew
Or, admitted to ourselves
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.
Finding the Sun
04 Sunday Jan 2026
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Afterlife, Belief, Courage, Divorce, Family, Fog, Freedom, Healing, Hope, Life, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Strength, Survival, Winter poem, Yearning
It is a dark night
And fog has settled
As if to say no
To every question
the solitude
of not being able to see
What will happen
Or if you’ll survive
What is about to come
This is the time to remember
Who you are
How you got here
Why you came all this way
Down the broken road
Even if you didn’t know
Life, like the fog
Never seeing too far
Sight is an illusion
One more step
Keep stepping
Eventually, you find sun
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.
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.
Reprieve
27 Sunday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Children, Dreams, Gratitude, Healing, Hope, Life, Love, Marriage, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Souls, Strength, Survival, Tuscan, Unity
a peaceful night
a Tuscan dream
of deep red wine
and beautiful cuisine
we danced below
the mellow moon
its light, approval,
of our outside room—
the love, the happiness
of family ties, in that moment
altered
from our saddened lives
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
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
I Promise
22 Tuesday Jul 2025
Posted in Poetry
I promise you stars
on the darkest night,
the brightest among them
to make the wrongs right.
I promise you rain,
after a long drought,
to heal your heart,
and remove all your doubts.
I promise you summer flowers,
opening at your feet,
longing to empower
for the journey you’ll meet.
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?
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.
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?
Bits of Poetry 