before you lose all your marbles...

some days it feels as though

you're about to lose all your marbles.

on those days, if you can,

(at least figuratively)

pull up a chair - beside the ocean,

beside a friend, and gaze awhile

at the horizon. gather your wits,

your thoughts, your self, and then

kneel on the ground, draw a circle,

knuckle down, and begin again...

-stacy wills (4/15/2011)

source image: orange beach, alabama

a poem for lent (for d. w.)

i was raised on stained glass images,

quiet ceremonies, and

pristine baptismal pools,

but no window

ever told me the story

of how you waded willingly

into a muddy river

teeming with humanity or

how deeply you plunged in

to search the churning waters

i drowned in long ago

how strange then to

know myself now

as one heaved ashore

sopping wet and

weak as a newborn

hearing my name

spoken aloud

for the very first time

-stacy wills (4/11/2011)

the borrower

in a tribute written for georgia o'keeffe's induction into the american academy of arts, it was said of her work that she...created original symbols for old experiences, sometimes too intimate for more direct revelation...

until the language of my own making

is found,

to speak of the tender wound,

i must borrow

words and symbols.

like a hermit crab

who outgrows one dwelling

and is forced to seek refuge

in yet another second hand shell,

i leave a mark behind

in those temporary homes -

a sign to the ones

who will follow,

that i lived there for a time.

-stacy wills (4/6/2011)