Alight with love

Let each of us be alight with love 

To guide others safely home.

From a distance

Like our cat, who prefers to view the world 

From the highest possible perch, 

The eagles like to scan the shore 

 From the top of our tallest tree— 

A model of behavior often advocated 

By my organizational behavior instructors. 

“Go to the balcony,” they used to say, 

And “Don’t get stuck in the weeds,” 

For, as Bette Midler used to sing,

 “From a distance, we are instruments, 

Marching in a common band,

 Playing songs of hope, 

Playing songs of peace, 

The songs of every man.”

Time’s distance

It’s a truism, of course, 

That distance makes things seem smaller: 

Here’s proof — did you even notice 

Mount Baker in the distance, 

The lone seagull amid the cormorants 

On the dock? 

Time’s distance works in similar ways: 

Not only grief and pain, but also joy;

 In fact all memories may fade, 

Though never disappear, 

Lost only to those not present 

For the actual experience. 

The stories may remain, 

 But impact lessens over time 

Until we seem to have no choice 

But to repeat ancient mistakes.

Morning pick-me-up

Drink them in, 

The colors of the morning, 

And allow them to revitalize your day; 

To make it sparkle 

With possibility and hope.

Starlings

The starlings are back, 

Chittering in the trees 

While my husband replenishes the feeder, 

Then swooping down to decimate it again, 

Their legendary greed 

 Leaving smaller birds hungry as they feast.

Beauty

Back in the early 2000’s, 

When I still sold my photos in galleries, 

I took a book of my best work 

To a portfolio review session, 

Hoping to be invited to show more broadly, 

And I remember the reviewer 

Turned up her nose and said,

 “These are just beauty shots. 

The best you can hope for 

Is to sell them to resellers,

 To use as illustrations.” 

 I remember being asked 

At a gallery opening 

 For a show of my photographs,

 “What camera do you use?

 I’m sure I could get photos this good 

If I had a camera like yours.” 

 I’ve been shooting with my phone ever since, 

And giving those pics away Every day. 

What beauty we can find 

In this oh-so-troubled world 

Is solace, and deserves to be shared.

Stop the world

It’s true: some days you just wanna say 

“Stop the world. I want to get off,” 

When it feels like everything’s going wrong 

And hurtling toward disaster. 

But we can’t, and it isn’t — not really, 

It’s just that we need some time and space 

To rest our wings and find our way back 

To center.