birthday

what to give you,
gift of my life?
I’m still learning
to receive you,
who showed up,
sunshine and beauty and hope,
blasting my trajectory
ever upward and outward
rounding my life’s arc
sending me soaring—
and you still are

I celebrate you
strangely sometimes, I know:
sighs for balloons
sarcasm for streamers
silencing the adoration
that sings in me
these misfires speak
more of me than you
and the flame of my love
cannot, will not, be doused

what to give?
no fitting tribute I can buy
nor my unsure hands make
but I can make you sure
of one certainty:
on this day of your birth,
great love of my life,
know, today of all days:
I am so, so very glad
you were born

today I light a candle
to mark a special day
when a wish came true
long before I knew
to wish for you

August 2009

martha

dynamic lady
her measured gait belied her
proud, unbent spirit

July 2009

gardener

Martha sowed freely:
loves of family, nature,
words, seeds still settling

July 2009

fights & flowers

we live and love
and we mark the time
with symbols
of our efforts
cemeteries, monuments, altars
hallowed grounds
that evoke the emotions
of our trials and triumphs
of what we have lost
and what we keep
of fights and flowers

we know how to engage
in civil warfare
familiar triggers
familiar firepower
familiar tactics
we test defenses
for vulnerabilities
for rare and rash and risky
is the head-on all-out charge
we exhaust diplomacy

fights and flowers
and what do we learn?

assemble the armaments
line up the troops
dig in to old trenches
trade volleys of verbiage
try to keep the weapons
conventional
knowing the madness
of the big guns
the big one
mutual assured destruction
D-day
must never be visited
or considered
so we keep it hand to hand
face to face
bayonet close
whites of the eyes
turning red

fights and flowers
and what did we learn?

funny the buttons we push
and those we don’t
funny the methods we use
and those we won’t
funnier still:
the fights we choose
to not engage in
are most telling
most revealing
of our battle plans
and our hopes
for armistice
for peace

fights and flowers
and what have we learned?

we hope we will emerge
from this skirmish
stronger, softer
more viable
we hope where we hurt
we will heal
we trust what does not
do us in
will not shut us out
we hope
we resolve
our differences
doing life
doing battle
ceasing fire
making war
making love
making up
as we go along

fights and flowers
and what will we learn?

June 2009

kendal on hudson

see blue skies through clouds
share choice words with precious ones:
life is wonderful

December 2008