Who I Am

It’s hard to stay in one place 

when my mind insists 

I should be doing something else or going someplace else,

urging me to believe in something more concrete than 

writing in storied poetry when selling my words is better. 

It’s hard to stay in one place 

when I listen to all my mind chatter.

The only solution is to tell myself that 

writing is as concrete as I choose for today.

Tomorrow may be different but I doubt it

so I’ll deal with it when tomorrow comes.

Today is the day, the moment I am in. 

It is easy to stay in that one place 

where I am enough and grateful 

for knowing and being just who I am.

“And even if it is just for one moment, 

I will be exactly where I am supposed to be.”

~ Sarah Kay, Paradox

Inspired by Paradox by Sarah Kay

Paper Thin Balance

 

inner strength is merely hidden, 

sleeping with feet up, 

while the busyness of the day 

rides rough shod over 

your mind and spirit; 

your body merely dragging 

its way through each moment 

barely making it to the time of night 

when it too can sleep.

How can one not be grateful 

for this amazing balancing act?

“Without balance, a life is no longer worth the effort.”

~ Olen Steinhauer,  The Tourist

Inspired by: A Cure is Needed for the Present, Sometimes by Fiona Bolger

Glowing

 

Each leaf ‘a sliver of colour’ ,

gold dust through arching branches.

I am warmed by the golden glow 

as the sun leans toward the horizon.

“Fading birdsong underscores this bottled time,

In butterfly hears, the hourglass stilled sublime.”

~ Stewart Stafford,  A Magic Hour’s Dreaming

Inspired by poem: September Mushrooms by Margaret Atwood

Today I Knew

 

I hadn’t noticed it until today.

The automatic way 

that my inner gears shift. 

In the moment when

I feel hard done by, 

suddenly I am grateful 

for my health, 

a hot cup of tea, 

the shoes on my feet 

my families, scattered as they are.

Gratitude has always there 

but only today I knew 

that it has become a reflex.

“For the things we have to learn before 

we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

~ Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

*Inspired by Essential Gratitude by Andrea Potos

Celebrating a Friend

Celebration of a birthday

laughter sprinkled through 

all the chatter around a table. 

different backgrounds, 

varied beliefs. 

good food and birthday cake

never too old to celebrate each other.

“Celebrating what we hope for together is better 

than fighting over what we believe separately.”

~ Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light:

An Indigenous Elder’s Meditation on Hope and Courage

Piano

My fingers miss the worn ivories where memory tingles 

 

with a lilt, a swell or scattered tinkle on the keyboard.

A sweet memory replayed 

when piano music ripples 

from the turntable. My fingers play silently & I smile.

“The piano is a mirror to the soul; 

it expresses what you are feeling at the moment”

~ Alicia Keys, singer, songwriter, pianist

Quiet Conversation

 

My kitty

His name is Jet

He speaks to me 

with a soft meow 

or just a polite sit and stare

when food prep is in the offing.

We have learned to translate

from feline to human

and back again ~ 

a quiet conversation with meaning.

“Cats seem to go on the principle that 

it never does any harm to ask for what you want.”

~ Joseph Wood Krutch, author, critic and naturalist

(1893 - 1970)