alleluia waits

what moved me to tears
was an unnamed longing

why would i seek more than
the safety and warmth of home,

the everyday litany of ordinary things,
and so generous a share of this gracious earth?

but there are cold places inside creeping toward the heart,
stealing wholeness and warmth and the spirit's bounty...

miraculous and steadfast resolution must begin in these 40 days, now as then...
...and, now as then, all but the unconditional love of angels depends on it.

ginny

but she was just here, laughing...
i called to see how she was doing...
took the phone
walked out on the driveway
listening to that drawl
and that low chuckle
on that odd springlike day
in february,
then so soon after, she was gone...
i'm so glad that part of her is still here
in my world,
that her laugh is still a warm place
in the air...

and someday
in the hours just before i leave
i want to laugh
like ginny

the promise

and so up through the void of things not said
a tiny shrug of love's light is still there

the slight toss of its warmth
might as well be a thousand suns

the distress of the last few months is not unwelcome...

fear is not an enemy so much as it is a balance understood

the pain i feel resonates with loving you
the same as turning away is always to return

we thrive in a dance of darkness and light
moving together and apart in nature's swirl

such is the beauty of i and thou formed
from the Sound that cries over each new soul,

and as that Breath breathed us out from the infinitely profound
so does love always come and is never not ours

for rhea, my valentine

i love this day...but not because it is beautiful, nor because it is valentines'...

not because i can stand over there and look out and see the tiny flowering quince you planted, all pink-orange, winking back at me from down by the road...

not because there might be a warbler migrating by...

nor because we might go fill up the truck with dirt and haul it back here to put in a new bed on this spring-like weekend.....no,

it is because this day stretches out into
f o r e v e r with possible moments,

and because i see these possible moments all queued up, one behind the next, each waiting its turn to come be filled up and over the brim

with loving you

xiv.
when i am mist
and no longer must pretend to be
just a dusty body in a dusty world
i will smile back at you from within
your own memory
of a rare fine night,
immersed in a stream
running deep between us,
when we not only celebrated
the beauty we share as souls,
in awkward limbs and moments,
but you smiled yes with your eyes

for doxy and her dear friend

what if, at the end,
it was all just haze in a glass
a life of well-tended quiet
savored in little sips
love safely endured



be in me supple spirit
an ever cleansing breath
intimate with life's urgencies
moments held like diamonds
love's risk taken in full measure

nowhere, fast

i.
love is common as clouds
and about as inconstant
astonishingly there,
or not there,
depending

ii.
love is rock, paper, scissors
mostly you never know what you're gonna get
so you keep playing
or not

iii.
love is not for everybody
if you're a loon, say
but the water is nice,
and laps all around, so
i guess for a loon
the pond could pass for love

iv.
i'm aware that you don't really think about it
and so i'll either get lucky or i won't
if that's really what it's all about
rock, paper, scissors

v.
where are my things
maybe it's time to go
but i only just got here

gettin dark
thanks anyway

like water for chocolate redux

this contrary life, unjust, often bitter
yet beautiful and fiercely loved

this leisure time in a body, haphazardly
sampling the lessons of love's ambiguities

if only our souls were welded to vessel and sword
instead of these languorous, complicated hearts

then our passions would ignite as we could only experience
once upon a time in eden's garden...

but, frankly, i'd take an eternal miss on the sweet bread of angels
to be drunk on the sweaty wine of just one hour with you