Promise of dawn

Even as the dark is pulling at us 

With its angry tentacles 

The light interrupts, 

Calling to us in a blaze of color, 

Promising us that we will find 

 A way through to belonging.

Beauty exposed

Those times when, like a tree in winter, 

We feel all naked and exposed, 

 Knowing that everyone can see 

How confused we are; how frantic 

Our attempts to make some sense, 

To find some purpose for ourselves… 

Why do we assume there is no beauty in that?

Like the silver seas

Just as it takes a mix of clouds and light 

To turn the seas to silver, 

It’s the mix of our life experiences — 

Dark and light — that burnishes our souls, 

Rubbing up against us until we shine…

Dark edges

Life does, inevitably, have its dark edges; 

Those moments when we find ourselves 

 Standing in a place 

We were never meant to stand, 

Feeling emotions we never hoped to feel, 

Knowing things we never wanted to know — 

And yet, the clouds still drift before the wind, 

The sun, and moon, and tides still rise and fall, 

As if to say, this, too, shall pass, 

And what is now will someday be a memory…

What isolation teaches

What if we all agree that this is simply 

A dark corridor, that everyone must walk 

In single file, sampling isolation, 

In order that we might find ourselves 

 Back in the light, and appreciating 

 The blessings of community?

Rationalizing the irrational

As the cracks in our society deepen,

 I keep wondering: What is this urge we see, 

 This burning urge to destroy, to enact revenge 

On all that we hold dear, all that supports us? 

Why so much rage? Where does it come from? 

And why do we insist on justifying 

And rationalizing the irrational? 

Why does our hunger for connection 

 Drive us to demolish what connects us?

Echoes of the magnificence within

Think of that surge of joy we feel,

 Upon seeing the magnificence 

 Of which the sky is capable, 

As a sort of call and response: 

An echo and reminder 

 Of the magnificent possibilities within us, 

Waiting to bloom forth and be seen.