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words seeking meaning

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  • Brackish

    Here the waters are brackish,Here the confluence of salty and sweet,An in-between place where lichen turns to stone,A merging of black and blue become purple with the red of a rising sun. Here there is hope, the first and furious emergence of Spring,The fierce appearance of a wild iris amid crags.Here there is grief, a […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    May 2, 2022
    Grief, Poetry, Writing
    Grief, Hope, Jazz, Lichen, Spring, Tears, Water, Wild Iris
  • What Lasts

    Lovely laugh lasts,Past the part where the party ends,And the end of a friend’s laughter lastsUntil the last time I think of himWhich is neverNever-ending last laugh lovely as it lastsThe sound of the ground surrounds the moundWhere has he gone?And for how long?Forever he lasts and laughs the passed pastAnd grasps the hasp, Loosens […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 28, 2022
    Friends, Grief, Poetry
    Laughter
  • 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 […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 27, 2022
    Family, Poetry, Spirituality
    Ancestors, Books, Buses, Cigarettes, Dance
  • 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 […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 26, 2022
    Nature, Poetry, Spirituality, Writing
    Creek, River Otter
  • Overwhelmed with Bliss

    On the homestretch of my 3-month sabbatical, I am in New Mexico. Right now, April 24, a Sunday, I am sitting in the Historic Plaza of Santa Fe and I am overwhelmed with bliss. Here’s what led up to it: A little while ago I had huevos rancheros at The Burrito Spot. They were, in […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 24, 2022
    Family, Spirituality, Travel, Writing
    Ace Bandage, Huevos Rancheros, Plaza, Roman Catholicism, Santa Fe, Soccer, Ukraine
  • What Brought Me to this Page

    I recently rediscovered the first words I ever wrote. When I was 4 and 5 years old, I lived with my family in North Bennington, Vermont where I attended The Prospect School. It was a big white clapboard building built on a hillside so that it had one story on the frontside and two stories […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 20, 2022
    Uncategorized, Writing
    A Separate Peace, Arizona, John Knowles, North Bennington, Preschool, Prospect School, Separation, Vermont
  • 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 […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 19, 2022
    Nature, Poetry, Writing
    Agapanthus, BMX, Crossing guard, Elementary School, Slug
  • 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 […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 15, 2022
    Nature, Poetry, Santa Cruz, Writing
    Abalone, Corona Beer, Ocean, PelicanMonterey Bay, Sea Otter
  • Brave

    I was in fifth grade, Mrs. Latendresse’s class, Room 5 at Westlake Elementary School. My family had moved to town right in the middle of my fifth grade year. For the first couple of weeks, I cried myself to sleep thinking of my lost friends and old haunts, of Scott the Mormon and Eric Christiansen […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 13, 2022
    Family, Friends, Santa Cruz, Writing
    Bullying, Elementary School, Fifth Grade, Friends, Westlake
  • 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 […]

    Benjamin Broadbent

    April 11, 2022
    Poetry, Spirituality
    Calistoga
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