Be the rock

You can choose to be the rock; 

To let the waves of drama 

Brush against you,

 But to block them, hold them back, 

So the lives you touch beyond you 

Aren’t disturbed, but continue 

Calm and peaceful.

Greet the new week

With hearts open and arms outstretched 

We greet the new week, 

Full of hope and awaiting joy.

A valentine for the broken-hearted

It seems appropriate to post 

This, my most recent painting,

 On Valentine’s Day, 

Even though it seems to me 

A bit broken-hearted; 

Perhaps a bit discouraged. 

Perhaps it’s a way of sending 

 A message of love and companionship 

To all who may be broken-hearted, 

In hopes that, in the end, 

Love will prove triumphant …

Traps on a truck

Traps on a truck! 

Sounds like a swear word, 

Which would certainly capture my mood of late, 

Yet doesn’t begin to describe 

The charm of all these colors and lines. 

As Garrison Keillor used to say, 

To an English major (or a photographer) 

Everything is material! 

(And I say: beauty is everywhere)

Just rocks

I know. It’s just rocks; 

Why take — or show — a photo of just rocks? 

But something about the light, 

The way two small rocks shelter in the cleft, 

While also being singled out 

And lifted up as offerings; 

The way the others shelter in the shadow… 

Isn’t this what size and power 

Were meant to do? 

To support and protect the small and weak; 

Not to overcome?

Tea party

I imagine them gathering, 

In the late afternoons, 

For a bit of tea and gossip 

About things they have observed, 

Studiously ignoring 

The human who stands nearby 

While at the same time hoping 

She might feed them…

The urge to protect

The madrona stands out 

In a forest of evergreens 

As a naked woman would in a ballroom: 

All the ruffles and lace fade into oneness 

Against the bare vulnerability of skin — 

Awakening, unbidden, the urge to protect, 

As would a child, under threat from bullies. 

May that urge to protect 

 Always overwhelm the need for power.