Surrender, Again

Surrender, Again

Some Buddhists tell ussurrender is the path. Let it all go,and you will be free. We spend so many years of lifetrying to outrun discomfort,as though sorrow, fear, anger, grief,or uncertaintywere intrudersthat somehow slipped past our ever-watchful eyes. We armor...
Lenses

Lenses

Is it simply humanto insist we understandthe world into which we were born? Infants sometimes understand thisbetter than adults.They explore with little animal bodies,trusting everything, fearing very little. Is fear inculcated by adultstrying to keep the world...
Clear the Needle

Clear the Needle

Who is she,if she does not even know herself? Trajectories confusewhen forcedinto linear containers.. Like the cosmos —all spirals and orbits —we spin and dance, sometimes skillfully,sometimes clumsily. The vinyl record spinning,fine dust collectingon the diamond...
Dislodged

Dislodged

I once wrote a poemabout a personI had felt contentious toward. This person, in a different form,has now appeared next door. A young womanproviding shelterfor another younger person. The blood-curdling screaming. As if I could witness eyeballsshooting straight out of...

You Complete Me

We never got enough of it.Nobody ever does.Perhaps it is the memoryof a more universal love,unburdened by the shacklesof our own species—expectations, resentments,yearning, always yearning. And so we gather like magnetson a child’s toy, drawn toand captivated by...

What Fire Knows

In winter, we burned what had to be burned.Snow made a bowl of the world,held the edges,kept the woods from incinerating intention. Chris tended the small things—kindling, air, patience.I stood nearby, full of heat,ready to give the firewhat it was born to take.I...