I followed the river back to you,
no easy stretch through choking leaves,
Still, I reached
as branches do.

For trees cannot let loose their limbs,
and roots remain where tree trunks do;
our separate roots, grown far apart
still find the water, as love does, too.

* * *

The heart is struck
by skipping rocks,
The earth is turned by
careless feet,

A garden born
of many seeds,

Decomposed, then using hands,
then feeding birds, then growing wings.

landslides tore apart the house
which stands no more

beside an ocean, but was risen up by cliffs
beyond a vanishing tide. They bore me upwards

through wooden planks
and shattered boards, dropped hallways
endings everywhere
as mountains lifted to the sky.

yet the stars prevailed, and you came

as an anthem, a crusader

to build a house, a monument, a home

to grace His mountain.

* * *

I have peace to thank you for, following through the knot
and pulling the needle out the other side.

Just as well, I am Your fruit, fallen from a branch to taste
the ground; I am beyond blooming.
Your nectar, fermented, is bittersweet
and brings joy to the tongue.

I have tasted you, Oh Lord.
I have cringed and bitten
and burned lilies for fragrance
but You, My Lord, bring bounty
from Winter to Spring,
from bowing, to standing
to blooming, to ripening--
from fallen, to flourished, My Lord.

From Spring 2010

10/29/10

Surely, this is not silence
to which we have
fallen, but knowing;
for we cannot say
what grows a bond, nor why a year
has led me to yearn
to complete that sentence,
yet that which calls us
to act upon words
must not be enacted. In this,
speaking will lead us
astray.



10/30/10

You have not said
my name--

there is a tremor,
a certain rush
to speak, to say
though you will not say it;
drowned of air
you must have silence
to breathe.

for you don't love
me (not too much)
and yet you would
take me (could you)

I still tremble--
I swear--
not speak a word.

ON LOVE X

Is this all we are--love

contagious, always

with fevers passing

in troubled sleep

stretching from beach to beach,

no waves

or land to reach

____

I would rather be a pillar, a symbol of my own strength

than combined tapestry, love for someone else's art

I am surrogate love, bred with a champion runner's heart

and a bloodline's tracks

__________________

love, who were you

to barge down doors

to appease

to please me

to refuse flowers, how can you

turn me away, your attention spans

between video games, movies, or work

you'd rather say--love takes time, and I need

time, to know myself

but you are as shallow as your affinities,
you have nothing

to share--no way to explain

who you are--you are

that which can fill in small cracks

and crevices, like Elmer's glue

but really, you are as porous as

a broken jar, holding dirt

swept from the garage, stored

on a shelf, pretty, waiting

long, for something new.

__________________________

it lives purely in a woman's heart, this companion

who dies of a porous heart

honestly, there were no words lost
between us, only blood,

nothing that could be given. And the way
we were pulled together, then

apart, left us with gaps
that became our connection.

________

stiffness, i am toward you
like a bone hand

The wind slams doors
in this house, makes meals
out of dust.

Pushes space around
with its fingers.

Drives through, opens windows,
riffles blinds and speaks
in a full tongue: wake up

you are new again, don't you see
your garden outside the window, grown lush
by steady hands. A tall flower
reaches high above
the window sill, threading sunlight.

Vines protrude through the glass.