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For The Bereaved-And We All Sorrow (Poem)
when the ground shakes in these uncertain times
when the house no longer shelters from the moment’s storms
when the heart breaks from all it’s asked to carry
when tears fall faster than the flooding rain
I would hold you
enfolded in the expanse of silent regard
with spacious kindness for your grief
be a staff in the fog that surrounds the day
a gentle warmth in night’s unseasonable chill
I have mourned so many deaths and died so many times
that this is now familiar space
no presumption to guide, no offer but this
walk beside you at your own pace
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Where Do We Live Now
when the simple acts of joy
the sharing of music
the announcement for a party
the laughter over a silly joke
these have become rebellious acts
transgressions
we ourselves have become the violation
breaking the acceptable boundaries
by doing nothing else than exist
and then to be seen finding any happiness
though it be taken from the slavering maw
of unreasoning hate
is met with rage at the sheer effrontery
this is our fierce defiance
that we go about our everyday lives
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Seek Seek Do Not Seek (Poem)
in one vibrating string hear every song you’ve ever heard
a first tune softly hummed before you were born
cryptic whimsy chanted when children play
a deepening dip and soar as love makes its trek through time
dolorous somber tones marking the shock of loss and death
a wavering catch and wail for any lonesome season
the unaccompanied steady beat beat beat
when your heart fills the silent hour
these all forever there-heard or not, it does not matter
in the movement of that singular string, you can sit within each moment
within that stillness that underlies
every shaping sound, each noting measure
and do nothing then but rest
