Shekinah, grant me
this grace: let these hands
shape dough once more,
let me be the one to light
the morning fire, to stir the pot of soup
with the big silver ladle.
Let me seek the blessings
you have hidden all around us
in plain sight.
Let me bend down once more
to lift the snowy cover
and grasp the ...
Read More →

(First, thank you for all your kind comments and wishes – if I were here more, I would say thank you individually, but for now – a big collective thank you and a hug!)

Grandmothers, please come
back.  I need you
now that you are vanished.
Please bring fried chicken and pickles,
mashed potatoes with gravy, gumbo
and rice, a shrimp ...
Read More →

Conception

The week you enter our lives,
it rains and rains. The rooster
shakes his tail feathers in the drizzle
and crows for the first time.
I had wanted a life ready
for you – sheep grazing
in the orchard, every room
painted the right color.

We knew already the ways
we would fail you.

In the end, we were no less greedy
than the gods. ...
Read More →

This poem is so appropriate, I couldn’t resist sharing it with you. It’s from the book Ten Poems to Set You Free that I mentioned in Yarn Along. (And yes, we’re using soil blocks to start our seeds, just like last year – we love them!)  Those of you who know me, know ...
Read More →

(photo by Ben on New Year’s Day)
Taking Joy
Twenty seven now, I am ready.
I gather all the old depression journals,
the teenage collages and melancholic cds, and I put them out
on the curb.  Don’t leave us, they cry,
you need us, we are part of you.
I turned my back, I forgave us all
and walked inside to this life,
where ...
Read More →

(Joining Ginny and many other for Yarn Along).
This is clearly going to be known as the winter of mittens.  With Ben and Ella both mittened up, and my hands getting numb from cold as I type and knit in the computer room while listening to archived Beacon shows, I cast on these Toasties with some ...
Read More →

If this be the world
If this be the world, let us continue
as we are today-clean pants
and green sweaters, the river pounding
below us, buttery light coming
through tall windows onto worn
wooden floors. If the truth
cannot be known,
if this be the world, let it go
on.  Where leaves have fallen,
let them fall again.
(c) 2005

I dream that I am a cabbage.
I find an unloved piece of land
and I begin to plant:
two rows of cabbages, and then
I fill the woolen earth with more
seeds.  Carrots, potatoes, squash, wheat.
They grow taller, I tend them gently, at night
I sleep in a bed of soft leaves.
When they are ready, my little cabbages gather their ...
Read More →

Do you see how tantalizingly close this sweater is?  Must. finish.
Even though truly warm weather is a ways off, and I’ll probably still be wearing the occasional sweater in May, my little polar bear was already walking around in short sleeves yesterday.
And also, some new words.  Definitely in progress, but here we go.
* * *
March
by ...
Read More →

First, I just want to say welcome to all the readers who came over from my interview swap with Heather of Shivaya Naturals.  I’m so glad you stopped by!  Usually I do a Gratitude Friday post, but since we had the fun interviews yesterday, let’s go for Gratitude Saturday.  Shall we?

Grateful for Solstice Bulbs still ...
Read More →