@gentle_quill
PHOTO
Propped against the lamp without a frame / Holding the light differently than I remember
OCEAN
Once a sailor and now this far from water / Currents moving in the same circles still
BLISS
Between one breath and the next, arriving / Loose inside a moment without edge
SCENT
Soap still in the air after the shower / Coffee pulling you out of the dream
BUILD
Becoming the thing you want to be is a project of many small days / Unless you are willing to be imperfect while building, you never build
GRACE
Gently passing through what others rush / Resting in the soft of an imperfect day
CALL
Coming to yourself always happens when a true call reaches you / A vocation is a call that you will hear no matter how far you run
SAFE
Somewhere the constant guarding finally rests / Arms that hold without condition or demand
RAGE
Rising like a flood without a warning / All the patience worn down to the bone
PRIDE
Pressing upward from the ground / Rising tall in your own truth
FIELD
Flat under the August sky it bakes / Insects loud in the seed heads all day
ELATE
Every cell inside you lifts at once / Light pours in from somewhere new
BLOOM
Before the bees arrive it opens quietly / Leaning on the fence in the late spring sun
CHILD
Cold hands from the walk and needing warming / Heavy bag dropped at the door with ceremony
POWER
Presence is the quietest and strongest force you own / Only what you nurture grows into something lasting
HILL
Higher than the hedgerow and the lane / Its crown of gorse burning yellow in March
SAFE
Settling into arms that ask for nothing / All the armor lifted off at once
TRUTH
There is something steady underneath the shifting noise / Returning to it feels like water after thirst
COOK
Clock watched only occasionally / On low and covered and left to do its thing
LAUGH
Loose and sudden, no apology / A gift the body gives without a reason
LUNCH
Leftover pasta eaten at the counter / Under the fluorescent office ceiling
FOG
Felt before seen the salt-cold air arrives / On the clifftop the lighthouse spins its light
VIVID
Vibrating with a brightness all your own / Inside the color, something new
CALM
Center found beneath the day's commotion / A soft returning to yourself again
RISE
Returning to the surface after the dive is how you bring the depth to light / In the very act of rising, you prove that the falling was not the final word
NUMB
Nothing quite arrives the way it should / Unable to locate the place to feel
OPEN
Offering space inside yourself for what you do not know / Places not yet visited exist inside the self
WALK
Weather guessed wrong and the jacket not enough / Around the park once and then once more
DEPTH
Digging past the surface finds the truer kind of ground / Everything that lasts has roots that go where eyes cannot
OCEAN
Opening before the ship without an end / Carrying its storms from one coast to the next
BLISS
Briefly and completely you are free / Living fully in the moment given
CREEK
Cutting between the cottonwoods in July / Rocks glazed green and gold beneath the flow
DEW
Deep in the night it settled on the rose / Everything it touches it makes briefly new
DOOR
Doors are only problems for the ones who need to stay put / Out beyond the threshold waits everything that is not yet yours
DANCE
Delay between getting home and getting settled / A moment of music from a passing car
ADORE
A softness rising at the thought of you / Drawing close without a reason
SCENT
Something baked that floats down the hallway / Coat just in from the rain still smells like outside
ROSE
Reaching past the gate toward the open road / Open even in the days before the rain
QUIET
Quelling the internal noise takes practice / Under everything, a waiting stillness
FAITH
Forward even when the map runs out / A steady hand inside the unknown
AIMS
Aiming for what is real, even when it is far off, is its own kind of wisdom / In the having of a target, the effort gains a kind of coherence
PATH
Puddles in the same place every time it rains / All the familiar trees marking the distance
SAFE
Somewhere that the world can't enter / A warmth without a need to prove it
YEARN
You lean toward the irretrievable / Every distance feels like hunger
MERCY
More than fairness, something like a gift / Every debt that could be held, released
ZEAL
Zeroing in on purpose like an arrow / Each moment burning with the love of work
PAIN
Pressing past the threshold of the bearable / All the body speaks at once
CLIFF
Cold and standing above the turning sea / Lined with the nests of birds I cannot name
HOME
Hallway mirror that shows the tired version / One window cracked all year for the sound
BOOK
Back at the same page after a week away / Open beside the coffee and staying open