Sunday, June 27, 2010

on becoming

month by month,
things are losing
their hardness;
even my body now
lets the light through.
my spine is soft like wax
near the flame of the candle.
i dream...i dream.

-virginia woolf (1882-1941)

Sunday, June 20, 2010

belonging (revisited)

i was sitting in the coffee shop with my dad
drinking a cup of coffee,
waiting to pick up my children...
and i realized how good it is to belong to people.
my dad, he has given his best years, all of them,
to my mom and me and my sisters and brothers -
to care for us because we belonged to him.
there is a bond between us - a fidelity - a union of lives;
part of my soul is inside of him,
and part of his soul lives inside of me.
i can't explain it, but that's how it is...
we belong to one another.
it is the same with my dear one.
we've been sharing love and joy and pain,
laughter and tears,
children and grandchildren now
for almost 30 years.
part of each of us lives inside the other.
i'd like to explain this to my children
but i'm not sure they would understand it.
it might sound more like restriction
than realizing that part of one's true self
belongs to another.
but maybe when i'm 80
and we're sitting in a coffee shop or somewhere else
they will see what i see now...
how good it is to belong.
maybe they'll see it sooner than i did.
-dan wills (b.1958)

Friday, June 18, 2010

life lessons

life lesson #49
(learned the hard way):
trying to carry
the weight
of the world
throws everything
off balance

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Thursday, June 10, 2010

disintegration

Things fall apart;
the centre cannot hold...


-W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

Friday, June 4, 2010

break the silence

i thought it was just me...and now
i find myself sitting here
listening to your story
and it's as if i'm looking
in a mirror...watching (hearing!)
my innermost thoughts
come out of your mouth...
my feelings, my fears,
my shame...and all this time
i thought it was just me
thank god one of us had the
courage to break the silence

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

everything tries to be round

...and while i stood there
i saw more than i can tell
and i understood more than i saw;
for i was seeing in a sacred manner
the shapes of things in the spirit,
and the shape of all shapes as they must
live together like one being.

-black elk (1863-1950)