Poetry
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Lost in These Autumn Breezes
Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night. Hal Borland Minnesotans like to joke that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. While that isn’t exactly true, I have seen it go from summer to fall practically overnight.… Continue reading
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Variations on a Theme
Hapy, the ancient god of the Nile, depicted at Dendera with Cleopatra, is typically shown with breasts – symbolism that demonstrated how the life-giving gifts of Egypt’s river artery come only when the power of both female and male was combined. Bettany Hughes Variation One I can still recall a reoccurring dream I had around… Continue reading
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Somebody Somewhere
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. Lao Tzu I have always been a stumbler. I create lofty plans regarding where I want to be and what I need to do to get there only to see my journey become a series of accidents, pitfalls, switchbacks, and wrong… Continue reading
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How Old Am I
If I had to choose just one dayTo last my whole life throughIt would surely be that SundayThe day that I met you George David Weiss “How old am I?” She looked up from her book. “What?” “I said, how old am I?” “Don’t be silly. You know how old you are.” “I want you… Continue reading
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This I Shout Loudest: Scenes From the Resistance
Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight. Bob Marley In Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.” Although she was singing about the environment, she could have just as easily written the song about our American… Continue reading
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Pollyanna, Radical Feminist
Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it. Chuck Palahniuk I have secret pleasure. I adore 1950s and 1960s live-action Disney movies. I suspect that much of that has to do with my childhood. I have very powerful memories of piling into… Continue reading
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Entirely Ready
I have to be composed; I have to be poised. I have to remember what my first piano teacher told me: ‘You do not touch that piano until you are ready and until they are ready to listen to you. Nina Simone It has been a few months since I wrote A Fearless and Moral… Continue reading
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Teenage Crash and Burn
When I was a teenager, I was an ultra late bloomer, and my mom would say it was a blessing because it means you never have to wonder if guys are only interested in you because you’ve got boobs. Anna Kendrick I recently came upon the following: A survey conducted by the Survey Center on… Continue reading
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Time Beyond, Time Without
Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. Lao Tzu It has been said that there are five stages of grief: Denial, bargaining, depression, anger, and acceptance. Today is the second anniversary of my brother Bob’s death and since waking this morning I’ve felt every one of them to one… Continue reading
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Shine a Light
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. Charles Dickens I am not a Christian and despite that fact that I regularly attend Sunday services at a Unitarian church, I am not anything in particular. I have a strong sense of spirituality and attempt to practice a life… Continue reading
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What Have You Done?
Each time a man or woman stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the… Continue reading
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Blessings Abound
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to… Continue reading
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Kitchen Ministry
I just hope Americans come to understand that food isn’t something to be manipulated by our teeth and shoved down our gullet, that it’s our spiritual and physical nourishment and important to our well-being as a nation. Alice Waters When I was just a lad of 10 or 11, my mother required an operation followed… Continue reading
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Believe Him
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamedlet it be that great strong land of lovewhere never kings connive nor tyrants schemethat any man be crushed by one above Langston Hughes Tomorrow is voting day here in The United States and I am still trying to make sense of the Trump voter. How is it… Continue reading
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A To-Do List for a Better Life
We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence. “Thou shalt not” is soon forgotten, but “Once upon a time” lasts forever. Phillip Pullman A much younger me believed I was in control of my fate. I lived life with the notion that whatever I was and wherever… Continue reading
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That Vote Was Mine
America’s democracy is not guaranteed. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. To guard it, and never take it for granted and protecting our democracy takes struggle. It takes sacrifice. But there is joy in it. And there is progress. Because we the people have the power to build a… Continue reading
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Cafe Unity
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. Plato A few weeks ago, I worked up enough courage to read some of my poetry at the 16th annual Unity Unitarian music, prose, and… Continue reading
Can You Hear Me Now 