Inspirational
One Child
I hope it will be said we taught them to stand tall & proud, even in the face of history & the future was made new & whole for us all, one child at a time.
One of Us
Someday, the light will shine like a sun through my skin & they will say, What have you done with your life? & though there are many moments I think I will remember, in the end, I will be proud to say, I was one of us.
Nothing More
Often, I write all day long with white ink on white paper, late into the night, until it is all I can do to feel the letters curving to earth from the tip of the pen & then, I fall asleep. Dreaming of running, or maybe driving in a car the color of water & I wake the next day remembering nothing & I gather the stack of paper & a pen of black on the desk in front of me & the words begin to dance over the page like long legged insects across a still lake & the words in white whisper behind & underneath the new day. If there is any secret to this life I live, this is it: the sound of what cannot be seen sings within everything that can. & there is nothing more to it than that.
Oddity
I don’t read the paper & I don’t watch tv & people ask me how I stay up with what’s going on & I tell them breathing seems to help & since I haven’t done serious damage to anyone yet, they usually leave me alone.
No Regret
I sometimes wake in the early morning
& listen to the soft breathing
of my children & I think to myself,
this is one thing I will never regret
& I carry that quiet with me all day long.
No Words
I read once that the
ancient Egyptians had
fifty words for sand
& the Inuit had a
hundred words for snow.
I wish I had
a thousand words
for love,
but all that comes
to mind is the way
you move against me
while you sleep
& there are
no words for that.
No Difference
There was a boy with skin
as dark as the earth
& a girl with
eyes as blue as the deep
& they loved
each other so well
that people could
not tell
them apart,
for in their hearts,
there was
no difference
between them.
Night Demons
When she played her music even the night demons stopped their work
& it took them some time to remember what it was they were doing
& the best of them had no stomach for it for a long time after that.
New Age
We’re already in the new age, she said.
What does that mean? I said. It means we
can stop waiting & start living, she said
but after she left, I still waited
a little while more just to be safe.
Making Sense
Hasn’t started to make sense of the world yet but thinks it’s beautiful all the same.
Magical Beast
this is a magical beast
that holds the secret of
light & shadow
in a safe place
in her heart
& when it has been
too long grey,
she starts to dance & laugh
& cry & sing
& the sunlight fills her up
& spills in wild abandon
back into the world again
Magical Beast (remix)
this is a magical beast
that holds the secret
of light & shadow
in a safe place in her heart
Lifetime
We’re here to end it, I said & she said, No, we’re here to begin it & then she turned & opened her arms & everywhere I could see, there were people, like bright birds, calling with a thousand voices & suddenly I understood. Here is where it begins with all of us, together giving our daughters a world worth loving for a lifetime to come.
Life Cycle
This is a special bike that’s not very good at listening to excuses, so it takes you exactly where you really want to go & if you kick & scream it makes you pedal harder & go up steeper hills until you’re too out of breath to complain & after awhile, if you’re lucky, you start to see that it doesn’t really matter if you laugh or cry, because it just wants to ride like the wind
Leaves of Music
She seemed to move everywhere dancing & music followed her like leaves on the wind.
Leaving Pieces
She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It’s easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said.
Legacy
I promise you not a moment will be lost as long as I have heart & voice to speak & we will walk again together with a thousand others & a thousand more & on & on until there is no one among us who does not know the truth: there is no future without love.
Joy of Spring
The birds brought seed & flowers & bits of brightly colored string & placed them in her hair while she slept so that she would remember the wild joy of spring when she finally awoke.
Just Weeds
running wildly into the spring wind chasing down all the dandelions before they turn into just weeds in a couple of years
Intuition
How do you know? she said & the answers fell like feathers, or the first snowflakes of November, light & without words. I looked in her eyes & smiled. You just know, I said.