Sadness Fear Confusion Distrust Guilt Shame Anger Sadness
All seething Within Pressing From all sides Threatening Explosion
The world On fire Innocent lives Destroyed Collateral damage Homes Infrastructure Years of work Up in flames
Where is love? Can we find space In our troubled hearts For love?
Can we step away From the noise Smoke, lies And find the peace We require To clear our vision Grieve our losses
Can we step away And acknowledge The shame We may feel As citizens Of this country and the monumental Frustration Overtaking us as we feel Held hostage By a regimen of evil, greed Corruption and the lust for power and adulation
Can we step away From the noise To find peace And love Deep within Our souls?
Can we embrace quiet And listen For the voice As persistent And gentle As hummingbird wings The voice That will guide us Empower us And grant us The courage To go on living Defiantly A life of love And service To the people?
Love cannot Be extinguished Find the spark The ember Deep within
Feed that light Fan the flame Reside in the hope that Together We will Someday Overcome The darkness.
The news worsens I am confounded My confidence gone Who am I As a member Of this country Previously proud to be so Now embarrassed Saddened Grieved by the egregious Actions And threats Of our preposterous president.
I know not what to do I lie awake. Awake. Hour after hour Sick with worry Hopeless as I am helpless To fix, to mitigate even Disaster after disaster.
From deep in the private Recesses Of my hurting heart Comes a silken shroud I allow myself To be wrapped within The soft and warm I release briefly My stale breath Letting the acid Ascending from my gut Trickle back down my vise grip opens and the scraping of teeth whispers into silence.
It is from within This protected den I hear The gentle voice Of love and Reason
Much to my chagrin And relief I am reminded I am not all-powerful Nor all-knowing But I am enough To answer That which is my call Which is within My reach
I can hold onto truth As I experience it I can share love I can feel joy For in this time of Great suffering In this time of Conflict-violence-evil We can only but do each Our own part Participate in healing That which lay Within our reach
The writers must write The painters must paint The protectors must protect Lovers must love And the faithful And the doubters Must pray And so on.
We all must watch And listen Create a sabbath In our hearts Each day And then When we hear in the silence of our hearts the calling or our names Our jobs will become clear And we must go forth With courage To do each our part No matter how small For together We are massive Together We will survive
The Power of Love Words Two dimensional letters Clustered Arranged Lifeless Cold
And yet When witnessed When you stand In the kitchen And have the honor Of being present For an embrace Of brothers Your heart Changes form Puffs up With warmth Grows outward Pushing its Self-imposed Boundaries Filling your eyes Threatening tears An involuntary Smile Appears
There is a near Palpable energy Electric-like Zipping through The room
In these moments You know There is Power In Love
In these moments You know Life is Precious
In these moments Current world crises Fade away Frigid temps Melt into nothingness For You know There is Power in Love And Life is good.
Breast the color Of weathered bricks Shiny black head Of the male Duller charcoal black Of the female Dirty yellow beak Feathers charcoal grey Beads of black for eyes Accentuated by rings of white
It is the eyes Which captivate Seeming to penetrate Deeply into my soul They remain fixed Not deterred By my return gaze
In Ireland The robin (spideog) Is considered to be Sacred Believed to have Acquired its red chest from The blood of Jesus When removing Pain-inflicting thorns From His crown As He hung on the cross
Many cultures Attribute Legends of heroism and self-sacrifice To the small birds Calling their red breasts A badge of honor
The American robin Is a thrush The European robin An Old-World flycatcher United by the red breast They are both called robins
Scientists say The robin’s eyes Sense the weak force Of the earth’s magnetic field Giving them a compass to navigate by What force do they sense From me What do they wish me to understand?
I wonder What causes me to be Filled with awe And covered with goosebumps As I gaze into the eyes Of these birds Believed by many To be messengers for those In the spirit world.
November robins Eleven of them Living in their winter flock Hop around the yard Pulling up worms From the earth Soon they will be existing On berries and seeds As winter hardens The earth.
November robins Hopping from branch to branch Atop the crab apple tree Feeding on their winter food As mother deer And her fawn Munch the fruit Fallen below
Yes, winter is coming But spring will return And I will once again Work in the garden beds With these same robins Living in pairs Singing that familiar Courting tune They will sit nearby Waiting for me to unearth A scrumptious treasure
But for today I will enjoy The gift Of Robins in November!
As a person of faith and wonder As a resident of this troubled country Of this hurting world, As a person I believe That Love is the answer Love heals Comforts, supports Includes, affirms
Love is an energy for good That energy will bring peace And compassion To the human heart Then from each heart Open to witnessing Expressing love In all its forms There will be ripples Which will spread to our families Communities Countries World
If only We push aside The curtains of fear And hate Greed and power lust If only we dare to Open our hearts To seeing Love Knowing Love Feeling Love Sharing Love.
There is joy In being understood And accepted Even in the understanding
There is joy In being in the presence Of one who truly cares about you Without judgement
Fear of failure Of not measuring up Of not being seen As perfect All melt away
And as fear dissipates Joy expands Fills, lifts Life blossoms
Life can be so hard In the presence of rancor And passionate disagreement In a world where it seems Lies are the norm Greed is okay Hate is applauded Life can be so hard
But there is joy In laughing With a true friend At our human foibles
There is joy In an unexpected Beverage break In a welcoming space Encountering new friends And almost new.
There is joy In a mountain vista In red, crunchy apples Dripping out deliciousness With each bite In autumn flowers Holding court For buzzing bees And elegant butterflies
There is joy In that first bite Of fall’s special An apple cider donut!
There is joy In lifting my face To partake of a heavenly shower So welcome After a seemingly interminable drought
There is joy~ And for that I am most grateful May I hold faith That even when The world Seems so cruel So heartless That there will always Be spaces Places And people Of joy!
Crumbs for the Journey 