Inspirational
Quieter Today
this is a window into the stuff that goes on behind what we think about it & even if we were all to disappear tomorrow it would go on without even noticing except to comment now & then that it was quieter today than usual
Random Door
doorway that only lets some stuff through but you never know what it’s going to choose, so it’s hard to plan for the future
Quiet Pride (daughter)
There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my daughter, though some days I’m louder about other stuff so it’s easy to miss that.
Quiet Pride (son)
There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said to my son, though some days I’m louder about other stuff so it’s easy to miss that.
Quiet Pride (No Gender)
There has never been a day when I have not been proud of you, I said, though some days I’m louder about other stuff so it’s easy to miss that.
Quiet Dance
Her feet moved like small creatures over the floor, quiet & unconcerned with anything but the business of dancing.
Purple Madonna
One time on Hollywood Boulevard I saw a young girl with a baby. It was a crisp winter morning & her hair shone dark purple in the sun. She was panhandling outside the Holiday Inn & the door clerk came out & told her to be on her way & I wondered if anyone would recognize the Christ child if they happened to meet. I remember thinking it’s not like there are any published pictures & purple seemed like a good color for a Madonna so I gave her a dollar just in case.
Promise
the water washed away everything but the chance to begin again
so we came from cities & towns, from long golden fields
& we stood side by side until we made a bridge to dry land,
back to a place we have promised to hold safe for each other’s children,
back to a place called America
Pools of Light
My favorite time of day is just at dark when all thoughts
of what must be done stop & small pools of light
come alive on tired faces everywhere.
Pillar of Flame
One summer night, we took my parents’ grill & we put in some sticks & paper & soaked the whole thing in lighter fluid & then my friend turned on his shortwave radio & we listened to some scientist in Houston who was saying where Apollo was at that moment & at the exact time it went over us, we lit the stuff in the grill so the astronauts would look out & see this light & they’d say ‘What the hell is that?’ & we danced around the pillar of flame & sparks laughing wildly because while the astronauts were out there unlocking the mysteries of the universe, we were back home in Chicago making more of them.
Place by the Sea
He kept a piece of algae behind his ear to remind him of his roots. A million years ago every place was a little place by the sea, he would say & my mind would go blank & I would swim through the day without a care in the world & it all seemed so familiar that I knew I would go back someday to my own little place by the sea.
Place to Fly
She kept asking if the stories were true. I kept asking her if it mattered. We finally gave up. She was looking for a place to stand & I wanted a place to fly.
Perfect Time
When I grow up, I want to remember that I always wanted to be about a thousand different things & one lifetime didn’t seem nearly enough. When I grow up, I hope it’s at the very end when it doesn’t matter anymore anyway
Pep Talk
I like change, she said, as long as I remember I like change.
Perfect Sense
All this stuff will make perfect sense later on, he used to say, if you can remember enough of it.
Packets of Light
These are little packets of light & you need to plant them early in the year & remember to mark where they were because lots of times they look like weeds in the beginning & it’s not until later that you see how beautiful they really are.
Partial Enlightenment
The problem with knowing everything’s going exactly as it needs to is that when you’re not having that much fun it doesn’t even do any good to complain.
Over Time
she reached over time to pick the flower since she wasn’t going to be near there again for a long while
Open Heart
He told me one time he forgot himself & his heart opened up like a door with a loose latch & he tried for days to put it all back in proper order but finally he gave up & left it all jumbled up there in a pile & loved everything equally.
Ordinary Life
Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.