Dear Readers,
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I will be traveling, visiting family, for the next two weeks. I will write and post, if and when I can. May your holidays bring you whatever it is that you wish for whether it be joy and liveliness, peace and quiet, or simply a couple of weeks just like all the other weeks.
Poetry & Practice,
april
Photo: Suitcase and Girl found on thepaintfactorypdx.com
My skin it ripples where I grip
My heartbeat slows its gulping
My body floats
My spirit soaks
My sins each bath absolving
-a.r.
Photograph by Linda Troeller
I should write
But I exhale
The “shoulds” whisper
To no avail
I settle in
To home and skin
Until the watch
Begins again
-a.r.
Painting by Jack Vettriano
Much too fast or way too slow
The felt sense of these days I know
Family time and travel soon
My skull and skin with shrinking room
Outcomes drift up in the air
My stuff piles here as thoughts fly there
I’m good to go or not enough
This season’s self-talk-shit gets rough
Wrapping and unwrapping fears
Shared spaces whisper in the year
Resolute, I’ll make the effort
My messy self kept in the present
What I want and what I need
The gift is that it’s up to me
-a.r.
Painting: Girl in a Copper Dress 3 by Steve Henderson
Our banks writing bills
Our lawmakers letting them
Our future is passed
Our bodies abused
Our speaking is then slandered
Our value erased
Our people as prey
Our protectors not serving
Our past still present
Our silence allows
Our vengeance devours us
Our words must ring out
-a.r.
Painting: Rainbow Voices by Kim Novak
It seems I chose the softest part
A precious spot on which to start
Pale and tender this thinned skin
No better place to let pain in
-a.r.
Painting: Vulnerable by Shana Molt on Etsy
Love-hate has always been
My relationship with all things
Including with myself
I have not been able
To give myself completely
To imperfect love affairs
Or family affairs
I always keep a part of me
Guarded and regarding
From a safe sardonic distance
I have rarely even questioned
My hardened nature
It kept me safe
Until this morning
As I slept
My daughter woke me softly
With a kiss to say goodbye
She offered me her Pooh Bear
She said I should hold him for safe-keeping
Half asleep and without hesitation
I held out my hands to her
And I gently took the bear
I pulled him tight to my chest
Wrapped my arms around him
And rested my head between his little ears
In my early morning haze
I exhaled so completely
That I suddenly felt as if I were falling in love
Unashamed, unprotected, unguarded
Unabashedly I cried
Why did I let this go
Why did I ever hide this away
Why did I put it in a box, in a bag, on a shelf
Why did I give it away
Why did I call it child’s play
I want it back again
This freedom to let myself fall
Even if it is only pretend
Even if it is only for the length of a hug
-a.r.
Image found on e-reading-lib.org
Loss of little things
Pinpricks of impermanence
Paper cuts still sting
-a.r.
Painting: Broken Chinese Porcelain by Jan Teunissen
Are we so bored
Uninterested and unaware
Of our own travels
That we miss
Our own momentum
Demanding then
Racy bandwagons
To hitchhike on
Hoping, hopping
From one to the next
To another
No. I’ll get there
Eventually
So I wave them by
And think
I am content
To take my time
On my own
Two feet
-a.r.
Photograph: Girl Walking Alone in a Golden Paddy Field by Atul Tater
A broken mirror has no meaning
But what imagination makes
It just reflects a fractured image
Of this ever-changing face
-a.r.
Painting: Shattered Image by Kimberly Gerry Tucker
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