@cloudy_muse
RIVER
Remembering every valley that it drained / In the drought its voice drops to a whisper
GRACE
Going gently with the self when the self falls short is hard / Responding to imperfection with patience is a practice, not a gift
LAMP
Lamp on and everything else made secondary / A habit now to reach for it at dusk
WIND
With all the gentleness of a door left open / It moves the curtain and the candle and the heart
BOOK
Borrowed from the shelf last winter / Open on the table since Thursday
AWE
A silence falls before the vast / When beauty overwhelms the mind
SOUL
Standing in full awareness of what you are is a kind of prayer / Out beyond the personality, the soul still knows exactly what it needs
FROST
Falling last night while we slept without knowing / Rimming each leaf edge with its white precision
GLEN
Green and sheltered from the outer world / Letting the burn run through its middle
FACE
Facing what you do not want to look at is its own kind of bravery / A gaze turned honestly toward the self begins all real change
WIND
What cannot be held can still be felt and known completely / Invisible forces move the visible world more than we remember
PURE
Purity is not the absence of the complicated parts of you / Under all the layers is something in you that remains untouched
EXIST
Everything that is here now was once not here at all / Existing is the quietest and most astonishing fact
MARSH
Mist hanging low above the reed beds / All the wildfowl settling for the night
POWER
Presence without force is the most intimidating kind of power / Opening to what you already are releases what force cannot achieve
OPEN
Out beyond your assumptions is where the most interesting learning lives / Permitting the unexpected to arrive changes the shape of what is possible
DREAD
Darkness gathering before the storm / Racing pulse at nothing visible
SLEEP
Side switched twice before the right one found / Late and the window still a little open
HOME
Hallway light left on for you / Old jacket on the chair
FOND
Folded into warmth by a single thought / Of all the things that last, this one endures
MEAL
Monday and already the week needs feeding / Every bite a decision made twice at the market
GRACE
Gently passing through what others rush / Resting in the soft of an imperfect day
RAIN
Rooftops humming a quiet song / And the streets begin to shine
GROVE
Gathering the light in its canopy / Roots intertwined below the soft needle floor
TASTE
Tea gone cold beside the keyboard / A slice of toast at the wrong hour
SONG
Soft melody surfacing from somewhere old / Only the chorus comes back clearly
BREAD
Bought on the way back without planning to / Rising sound from the oven before it’s ready
ALWAYS
A truth held over time reveals its permanence in the holding / Lasting things do not require proving every time they are questioned
NEAR
Nothing profound is hiding somewhere distant from you now / Everything you need to understand is present in this moment
GUILT
Gathering each could-have-done-it-better / Under all the busyness it waits
SWEET
Slow the moment to receive its gift / Warm as bread pulled from the oven
ADORE
A warmth returning every time I see you / Deep in the chest a steady faithful flame
SIGH
Sending breath into the open / Inside each exhale, something eases
LILY
Low in the water the lily pads spread wide / Its flower white above the dark below
VALE
Very early when the mist is in the hollow / All the sound is softened at this hour
BUILD
Brick by brick, the self becomes what it practices / Under every finished thing are all the failed attempts
WISH
Wanting something real enough to shape your days / Into the unknown, you send the truest part of you
SEED
Small enough to lose between the fingers / Everything it knows came from one other seed
COST
Counting what a thing will cost is not the same as measuring its worth / Only the things that ask something real of you teach something real
FROST
Finding every surface before dawn / Rimming the red berries with cold light
WIND
Wandering through the ancient pines / It carries seeds to faraway hills
BREAD
Baked until the kitchen smells like home / Rising slow through the cool morning
NEAR
Nothing profound is hiding somewhere distant from you now / Everything you need to understand is present in this moment
SLEEP
Slow day and the body agreeing early / Later than usual and catching up
CLOCK
Changed in spring and the whole house shifts / Looking at it when the conversation pauses
FAITH
Facing forward when the road goes dark / Alive inside the mystery, not afraid
CORAL
Created by the smallest of the living / Over a thousand years it builds a mountain
LAMP
Late on and the book not yet finished / A small warm radius in the large dark room
PEACE
Passing through the difficult is how you find the place beneath it / Each layer of resistance dropped reveals a quieter layer underneath
MARSH
Morning haze lifting off the reed bed / Avocets picking through the shallow mud