Hedging Bets

Roll the dice
and know that  it is a chance you take
to hedge your bets on a single event
or  a person you have come to trust;
maybe even love,
as you flush out the truth
of each moment.

Extract the words
that build up the walls,
that create barriers,
that get in the way of a simple exchange
of lupine, or lilies, or maybe even
peonies.

Flowers don't exclude or redesign language
in the same way that chance does.

And yet, here we are,
placing our luck in one small sacrificial plate,
placing all suffering
in the drawer with the Bible
next to the bed in any lodge
where travelers will rest
their weary heads.

Here we are
counting on the sturdiness
of someone who looks you in the eyes,
tells you the truth all the time,
and gambles on numbers
and the source of the universe
and finds solutions
in seeing what is left
undone.

Travel Tenderly

Travel tenderly
as you loosen your grip
on the idea of Venice in the fall
and settle
on a casual elation
near the edge of a small lake
in New Hampshire
or northern Vermont.

We all can use
that kind of turbulence
drifting past our busy minds
where we attach ourselves
to the constant movement of something
we never wanted
but suddenly found
oddly useful.

Keep the old letters?
Purge words that are meaningless.
Change the meaning of something dirty; possibly obscene,
into something sacred.  A sketching of a nude
on a cafe napkin becomes fine art.
Five words strung together in a sentence
a line of lovely verse
or the lyrics to launch
a romance.

Peepers and cardinals,
lilacs and harvesting
note after note
in singing spring.
Promising
in full-throated sound
 to be
so fully alive.

Words

I am at a loss.
There are a thousand words
and tonight
I am nearly silent.

There are words for the color blue
and for the taste of a perfectly
poached egg.
There are words for hostas
and hope and hotels.

There are words for rain
and radiance of light.

There is silence in me
and a loss of control
over things like locks
and laughter
and language to tell you
of this enormous love
that lives in all of us.

Speak to me
in words that whisper
the truth.
Remind me of our humanity
and of the way that the skin feels
when a single finger brushes
the back of a hand
with the intention
of connection.

Wake me.
Open my heart with words.
Remember the ways in which we are
dominated by the movement of our mouths
shaping meaning out of simple sounds.

Unexpected Thunderstorm

The unexpected
thunderstorm
on the ride home
from north to south
flashed, vibrant
and jostled
me from the hum
of my usual path.

Even so,
the caress of song
and rain
drumming
on the black car
in near darkness
was a comfort
to me.

I have been alone
for so long;
forever maybe,
and this usher--
this new spirit
of the spring of the year,
touches my imagination
with the electric paths
from Earth to Heaven.

This is not God
striking me down
in anger and fear
at my rebellion
but rather,
my prayers ignited
in celebration
and song
like no other
music
sounding
the cords
of laughter
on the night sky.

Silent Feast

Nourish me
with your languid eyes,
though tired
these portals of the soul
invoke the spirit of everything.

I am the queen of the palace
and yet I have no treasure
but this solemn gaze.

Words overflow.
Mind mends
dismissed injuries.
Spirit sails with laughter,
prances free
of all worries
and releases into
the light of the moon.

I feast on the goodness
of abundance in this life.

Only This

Chanting the name of the sacred.
the music of god is here with us  --
the soul
eager to savor
the spirit of things
like the succulent
fig bursting open
and sticky on the fingers
and lips with singing.

I am so thirsty
for the wine of heaven
and to taste the bread
given as a gift
to all who believe.

Take my hands in yours.
Tell me stories that allow laughter
and pray for all that is light
and the source of freedom

here in this very moment. . .

in only this moment.

Mother's Day

The light of my children
has come to my house
on this day of mothers,
on this day where they strum
my heart into singing with flowers
and mowing the grass
and helping me plant tomatoes
and peppers and egg plant near fava beans.

I cherish these hours
of sun streaming
through the windows of my cottage
and fusing their souls
with enough love
for a lifetime of brightness.

I want to give it all away to them;
each beam of light I was given from my mother
and her mother and all the others who have loved me
until their hearts broke open and spilled out so much joy.

Plant the seeds of this much love
and know that the harvest
is infinitely greater
that the single grain of hope
you dared to believe could live
in one afternoon of laughter.