@gentle_quill
RIVER
Remembering every valley that it drained / In the drought its voice drops to a whisper
WISH
Wanting something real enough to shape your days / Into the unknown, you send the truest part of you
BREAD
Baked from a recipe learned from someone gone / Rising on the counter while snow falls outside
CORE
Centering in what is most essential is a daily practice / Out beyond all the peripheral is what you actually are
ALWAYS
A truth held over time reveals its permanence in the holding / Lasting things do not require proving every time they are questioned
GONE
Going is the nature of everything that ever truly was / Only what we loved enough can leave the kind of absence it does
FROST
Finding every surface before dawn / Rimming the red berries with cold light
SMILE
Something small begins and grows / Meant for you and no one else
ALWAYS
A truth held over time reveals its permanence in the holding / Lasting things do not require proving every time they are questioned
COOK
Calm returned by the act of chopping / Oil and garlic and the kitchen comes alive
MIND
Moving through what is hard with full awareness is a form of courage / In the quality of what you give attention to is the quality of your day
SCENT
Soap still in the air after the shower / Coffee pulling you out of the dream
SPARK
Something small and bright ignites the whole long journey / Potential lives inside the thing that seems insignificant
RIVER
Running clear over smooth and ancient stone / Into the valley where the willows lean
WARM
With you, the cold becomes a thing remembered / A fire that needs no wood, just your presence
CAFE
Corner table and a long coffee / Afternoon spent with a book and no plans
ROOM
Radiator clicking on and the curtains shift / Ordered in memory though not always in fact
LIMIT
Learning where you end is not the same as giving up / In every boundary, there is also the outline of your truth
CLOCK
Constantly noticed when you wish it wouldn’t be / Louder than it should be in the quiet
VIVID
Vibrating with a brightness all your own / Inside the color, something new
TRAIN
The platform where everyone stares at the floor / Rushing past the back of ordinary houses
SHINE
Something genuine in you does not require the right conditions to glow / Having been through the dark is what makes the light in you believable
CHILD
Crayon marks still on the doorframe / How tall you were at five
SAFE
Somewhere that the world can't enter / A warmth without a need to prove it
DANCE
Dishes done and the song too good to ignore / Arms out in the kitchen and not caring
ROOM
Radiator clicking on and the curtains shift / Ordered in memory though not always in fact
ROOM
Rearranged in the mind a hundred times unchanged / Outside the window the world finishing its day
LONELY
Looking out at crowded streets alone / Only silence answers back
COOK
Clock watched only occasionally / On low and covered and left to do its thing
NIGHT
Nothing stirs but the old clock / Into the bed still warm from yesterday
NAME
Nothing holds a truth more lightly than the word we give it / All naming is a kind of claim and a kind of letting go
STONE
Stripped from the hillside by the river long before / Time left its weight but took away its edge
WARM
Weaving warmth through every passing thing / A fire kept for those who need the light
ONCE
One moment contains everything you were in that single hour / Not every good thing stays, but every good thing mattered
SWEET
Stolen moments tasting warm / Warmth from a well-loved cup
CLIFF
Carrying its scars with a kind of patience / Lifted from the sea floor long ago
SHINE
Staying bright inside a world that dims you down takes discipline / Having your own source of light means you do not depend on conditions
RENEW
Returning to what is essential in you after what is external takes practice / Each morning offers the original version of the self before the day
NIGHT
Noise of the city becoming a hum / Into the window the last bit of sky
FLAME
Finding your direction in the warmth of what you love / Looking for the source of what compels you leads to the core
CORAL
Centuries of tiny lives have built this / Over the sand it reaches toward the light
FERN
Feeling its way upward in the spring warmth / Even the underside is a kind of map
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
ONCE
One moment contains everything you were in that single hour / Not every good thing stays, but every good thing mattered
HOPE
Hearts that hold the unconfirmed / Over every valley, a bridge appears
WALK
Wind switched direction halfway through / Around the reservoir where the ducks ignore everyone
FREE
Facing what has held you is the beginning of no longer being held / Releasing the past does not mean it did not matter, it means you do
ATTEND
Attention is the rarest and most significant gift one person gives / To be truly listened to is to feel that you exist more fully
HOPE
Here where the darkness presses in / Our eyes adjust to find the light
CALM
Cradling the storm until it sleeps / All the noise begins to thin