Category: Poetry
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Ancestors
All around me are my ancestors.All around me,Wherever I go,Wherever I live.How can that be? How do they travel?How do they know? Evelyn is here,Barefoot, Embodying good words as she moves upon the church floor boardsAnd out onto the street to follow me, even here. Charles is here,With his bookish grumble,His camera-like gaze.Capturing moments and […]
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The Sound
Somewhere an otter ceases her frolicking.She sniffs at a sound coming from high above her.Her pups pay no heed,So enthralled are they with their watery playgroundAnd the crunch of crayfish.She moves her head from side to side, now up and down,Rearranging the whiskers on her glistening face.Somewhere, something is calling to her.She can’t locate the […]
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Unsaved
You slimed onto this sidewalk,Following an instinct,Oozing toward a scent.Or, you ended up here by mistake,Your mistake.Congratulations! You make mistakes that are yours and yours alone. When I first glimpsed your slithering mass,I flinched,Then immediately softened, basking in all your glory.I took a picture, Wanting to remember how beautiful you were in your no-shell vulnerability.Birds […]
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Body of Water
The ocean. The Pacific Ocean. The Monterey Bay. West Cliff Drive. The cliffs themselves. The smell of ocean air, seldom as fresh as poetry pretends. A mixture of acrid salt, sand-heat rising like baked bread, rotting kelp, Pelican dung, and the occasional human off-gassing of Aqua Net, coconut tanning oil, and the incense of semi-legal […]
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You Need to Know This
That you are infinitely held.That with all the voices jockeying for postion to talk you out of who you are,This one matters most,The voice underneath, beyond, and inclusive of the rest, saying,“You are loved as you are, exactly as you are.” There is nothing to prove.There is no deed to perform.There is no one to […]
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Beckoned
I did not create myselfDid not decide to show myself upon the EarthYet here I amThe birthmark on my right arm looking like a dwarf planetMy hamstrings as tight as the day is longI don’t know how I got hereOr maybe I doI got here with you Following the same trail of stardust and DNAArriving […]
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This Grief Is Not A Tool
This grief is not a tool that accomplishesNot a shovel that digs a deeper holeThis grief just isConstantly is Like the cup fallen from my handWhen I swear I was being carefulIt can’t be put back together, though I’ve triedCan’t hold the drink it once heldCan’t bring back the friendship that presented itself to me […]
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Very Giant Rock
One of my sabbatical goals has been to find a new Sonoma County hike each week. So far so good. I told Carla, my massage therapist, about this goal and she said she knew of a hike in the coastal mountains that only locals could find. She said she’d write down the directions, which she […]
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Afraid of Ghosts
I once spent the night alone in a cabinSweet solitudeNo reason to be afraidThe wind softly scraped the branches against the decaying shinglesThe rafters and the floor boards crackled in concertThe bunk bed springs creaked even as I lay perfectly still In the pitch black I could hear scurrying and perhaps heavier footstepsI forced myself […]
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