Month: July 2016
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When digging in my garden
Open spade cleaves mud, unwraps under-earth’s treasure-trove — twisted wires of plant roots clinging deep, no repentance, no shame. I ask when will you break free, leave us alone, untangle this mess? You grip on, silent as black, churning in your own direction, to your own end, to ours.
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From the ether
Late in the afternoon that day, as the low sun pierced the leaves like a thousand glimmering stars, each of my long-dead patients rushed me towards an unexpected, unearned bliss. Of course, it seems shallow how memories, obscured by our endless tasks, doings of this moment or that, can burst into our presence and bring…
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7/15
blue jay caws swell the faraway echo, drawing us near our sandy bluff — breezes wrap, spin us round, return us round
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When walking through woods without my father
I am not sure if it is the breeze, wilder, more freeing than any in the city, or the wintergreen sending its scent up to play with the blueberries and pine that brings on this longing afresh. You would perch yourself on a ridge like this one overlooking the lake or a forested horizon, endless…
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Fear and hope are like two wings of a bird
Today I woke up afraid, hope struggling to be born on this very brink, for my sons, for my city, for my unborn grandchildren (who may choose to never come forth, so unpleasant are we), indeed for my world — for all that is prized, hard fought won conceded cherished revised overturned allowed to decay…
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Be it ever so
The light that morning came through a crack in the ceiling with me squatting over a pool, fed by some endless spring running far under ground, unseen, always present. The water made images of our faces flat with shadows, asked us to pause, fed us with wonder, perplexity, confusion, hope, disconsolation. I rose as always…