Giving Up Coffee

In the gloom of a cold,
I gave up coffee.

Not like the first time
when I was shamed into drinking tea
and forced to fall in love
with English breakfast,
chai and ginger,
peppermint and Earl Gray,

but because my own body rejected the bitterness
and wanted to be soothed by that old trauma
and to sit quietly with the softness
like an old comfortable sweater.

I am home here in the steaming
and steeping in deep thoughts
of survival and learning to love myself.

Here

Curl close to the body of someone you love
and know that your skin is alive
and transmitting love from every cell.

Like a newborn placed on her mother's chest,
you cry loudly just to let God know
that you made it safely to your destination.

Let yourself notice your breath when you are walking,
be aware of all it take to place one foot after the other
onto the earth.
If you focus carefully, and without fear
you might even get a glimpse of the holy
from all your nakedness.

And when the Divine calls your name,
answer "Here am I."

The Emancipation of Joy

Tonight we celebrated time
like we knew about herding minutes into hours
and the grave is still the end of an endurance race.

We teeter each morning as we rise
hopeful for renewal
until you remember the moon that was pregnant with light,
subtracted from all the stars and the clouds raced
over the Connecticut River in a hurry
just like all the clocks everywhere.

This does not take away from any of the love.
This only reminds us how very precious
the emancipation of joy of a single day.

January Thaw

The temperature
rises and we feel such joy.
January thaw.

Poem for God

Before the day's end
Write one poem to please God.
Know that love is there.

You Will be Stronger

When the dullards take the wheel
and the elemental detour we all hoped to avoid
becomes the superhighway

let us remember like the disciples of Jesus
that this life is not over
no matter what the lummox in the front seat says.

Relish the sun on the face of the evangelist
you must become and do not fear the prosthetic
that used to be your heart.

You will be stronger for the uncontrollable love
you already know is present in the center of your chest.

Stand on the threshold of your new home
and invite the strangers in. They will become new
and all shall be well as can be expected.

Planning the Escape

In the evening when I have settled
ashen-faced and clean after the ablutions
at the end of the day,

I call on the angels,
ask for their guardian presence
as I pull my covers close as downy prayers.

I will bloom in my stary dreaming this night.
Poppies and snow are at peace there,
and I always carefully finger the locket
filled with my lover's voice.

Swindler of all kindness,
weave me into the night.
Make me invisible
to all but the one I adore.

Whisper the plan of our lifetime of escapes.

I will be at the door of the garden
tapping like a ghost who knows all the names
by which you were ever called.