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
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.
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
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?
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.
10 Sunday Nov 2024
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Afterlife, Belief, Eternity, Fear, Forgiveness, Freedom, God, Gratitude, Healing, Infinite, Longing, Mercy, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Saguaro National Forest, Soul, Soul Poetry, Spirit, Spirits, Strength, Survival, Yearning
I thought, If all paths lead to God,
why should I care
about a right, or wrong, path?
I picked up a stone
and carried it four miles
through the desert to lay it down
at the broken, stone house.
But I took a wrong path, and laid it down
in an unmarked ravine, instead.
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?
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?
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?
04 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in Poetry
04 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in Poetry
but in a good way
the way of being stronger
than they understand
no need for a smile of fear
they smell it
poke the cage hoping
you’ll fall to pieces
or attack and hit the bars
they mistake how far
you can lunge
when you’re free
they mistake your love
for weakness
no worries
they’ll come begging back
it will bore you
I didn’t say
we are a family of bitches
she did
I’m here to claim it
tame women are a lie
they tell you exist
ask yourself why
you believed it
03 Thursday Aug 2023
Posted in Poetry
If I feel your pain through her.
I don’t.
I feel her pain.
I tell her not to be the victim
In someone’s story about victims.
I tell her we’re survivors
Who make sweet lemonade
From what’s meant to be sour, tart–
We make our hurters think
We planned our hearts hurting–
That’s how happy you will be, my love.
We are a family of bitches.
I mean it in a good way—
Like good witches. Women
Who carry mystery in our bones:
We delight in knowing life is delightfully dark,
And ugly, and exquisite, and essential.
My love, in time you will find love,
But does it matter?
It will come too late to save you
From the present hurt, the sting.
The scarring. It’s fucking beautiful.
You didn’t ask for it.
But it will be beautiful anyway,
How you’ll wear it.
Maybe it will be your own poem,
Someday, when someone else needs a poem
About how to survive being thrown away.
You might learn the words that will heal them.
16 Thursday Feb 2023
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Barn, Birds, Dreams, Family, Freedom, Grace, Home, Hope, Horses, Life, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Prodigal, Redemption, Sky, song, Songs, Souls, Storms, Survival
Now, I'm too old for sin, Prodigal child who came home again. Grace surrounds me in this old barn, As I seek redemption on the farm. Chorus: There’s freedom in these open skies New beginnings, no more lies, Birds that sing of love and loss, New chapters, and fresh starts. Chorus. Horses, like angels, whisper in my ear, The sweet words I need to hear. Gathering strength, like a mare and foal, Legs that race beyond the coming storms. Chorus. Birds gather, with their gentle song; They remind me of lovers come and gone. Of new beginnings and new dreams, And open skies where I am free.
24 Tuesday Jan 2023
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Addiction, Death, drug addiction, Dying, Hope, Life, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Souls, Survival, Yearning
I see him in every empty stare
A zombified generation
Of once beautiful souls
How did we get it so wrong
Sacrifice a generation
And how do we save them?
Love isn’t enough
When it has gone this bad,
So far from our empty promises
Is he beyond prayers, too
Because that’s all I have left
I see him in every empty stare
And send up this poem
On the fragile wings of love,
and a whispered prayer.
26 Saturday Nov 2022
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Beauty, Courage, Dancing, Freedom, Gratitude, Happiness, Hope, Longing, Love, Love Poems, Music, Poem, Poems, Poetry, shame, Songs, Soul, Soul Poetry, Souls, Spirit, Spirits, Strength, Survival, Unity, Yearning
Fogged in for five days,
A space, made smaller
By low-hanging clouds
That won’t go away.
Nothing is as ungovernable
As weather, except the soul,
Bent on flying–
It’s what they always get wrong
About need; I need freedom;
I need sun, and a view so clear
It extends forever, like a soul,
Bent on flying–
Beyond every cage, open space;
Beyond every wall, more room;
Beyond this fog, the sun,
So bright, it will blind you.
2
He said, the world is bound together
in shame, and shadow.
3
What serves your soul:
A walk, a song, an embrace.
Last summer, we danced
Under stars and moon,
To music from Alexa.
Last night, we danced
To Christmas jazz.
You opened the door,
Danced barefoot in snow,
Twirled under night clouds,
A free soul of sun, and song,
A soul bent on flying.
14 Monday Nov 2022
Tags
aspen, chickadee, Death, Death Poems, Ezra Pound, Falcon, Hope, Life, Loneliness, Loss, Love, magpie, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Pound, Robins, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Survival, Yearning
I will take a *Pound out of this poem everyday until it is three lines: a title, and 2 lines.
I envy the Aspen,
With her sleek, white body,
She stands unmoved,
While her leaves shake,
Turn color, fall,
And she is left,
Naked and alone,
In wind, rain, snow,
Enduring all,
Judging none,
No complaining.
In spring, I remember
Her limbs rejoiced
In buds, then leaves,
And birds.
They gathered
In her arms:
Robin, magpie,
Sparrow, finch, falcon.
This autumn was summer,
Then winter,
She is bare again.
The chickadees bounce
From perch to perch,
Fully happy in her embrace.
During this too early winter,
When we lose faith,
Fall to our knees,
Barely endure
dark day after dark day;
She stands reaching,
Arms outstretched to the sun
Beyond the clouds.
You must see now,
Why I envy the Aspen,
How she will survive,
And thrive, beyond me.
11 Thursday Aug 2022
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Cats, Death, Death Poems, Feral Cats, Freedom, Hope, Life, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Souls, Survival, weeds, Yearning
when she hid
behind the grasses
and weeds
you could only see
her eyes
but you had to be looking
all I want
is to exist
on this earth
I could hear
those words
I swear
I could hear her
say them
04 Thursday Aug 2022
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Afterlife, Death, Death Poems, Fathers, Forgiveness, Hope, Letters, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Love Letters, Love Poems, Lovers, Memory, Mothers, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Survival
Whisper me a tale of lovers,
Through limbs of trees and years,
Rattle a leaf, turn a page,
Rifle through an abandoned dresser.
You will find them there among socks,
With no feet left to cover.
The body is taken away,
Yet, rises again in pen.
She recognizes the scrawl,
It is as much him as him,
And hymn to her hurting heart.
You realize love too late,
She thinks, beyond the day-to-day
Bicker and fuss, we lost us-–
She sees her lover now,
In what is left undone–
The many things he touched
And with his touch, flourished,
They wilt now that he’s gone.
Yet, in her hands,
She holds his scribbled words:
Nineteen sixty three, nineteen sixty four–
And, it all comes back to her.
01 Monday Aug 2022
Posted in Poetry
29 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in Poetry
Tags
Afterlife, Dad, Death, Death Poems, Dying, Eternity, Fathers, Hope, Infinite, Life, Loss, Love, Love Poems, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Survival, wolfhound, Wolfhounds
Some gifts are better than others,
The way I saw your heart extend
Into past memories of her—
Tears from your uncrying eyes—
Her loss was the one loss
That broke you like that,
Like that,
The sobbing unashamed.
And then, it’s as if we fast forward
The great movie of our lives together:
You’re dying,
I’m a middle-aged woman.
You give me a dog.
A wolfhound,
Like the one whose loss broke you
Way back then. Riagan. Riagan.
Whose eyes held our gaze,
Whose eyes sought to impart wisdom;
Perhaps, her eyes saw beyond this life,
To where you are now.
Wouldn’t it be something
If our lives are that special,
They continue forever,
Two points–three–an infinity of dots
On some great line that extends forever.
Bits of Poetry 