Enlightenment is to healing
what flowers are to blooms--
same vibrance under different names,
like air in different rooms--

and just like flowers, both of these
need time and space to thrive--
and courage to face what's underground
and open to new life.

In the notebook

It’s okay to not have it all figured out.
Clear, sunny days are fun,
but clouds and rain are essential, too.
Take it slow in this fog, little one.

In the notebook

Forward, enlightenment knight,
to another day pursuing the light
of healing and living with mindful sight,
honest, brave, and kind.

Yours not to perfectly plan,
yours not to meet demands,
yours but to do what you can,
staying self-aligned.

Could this be called “fan poetry” (instead of fan fiction)? I adapted the famous second verse of Tennyson’s classic poem for this exercise.

In the notebook

If the voice in your mind
is strict and unkind,
that's not a voice of wisdom.

It's a scared, hurt child
alone in the wild
who needs help and compassion.

In the notebook

People who hold an opposite view
politically from yours
aren't evil, of course. They're people too,
with the same needs at their cores:

to feel safe, to protect their young,
and to have the means to live.
It's just a different route they've come.
Let us seek to build a bridge.

In the notebook

You don’t scold a daffodil
for not blooming on command.
It will open when it's ready:
this you understand--

and yet you scold a child
for not jumping to obey,
instead of adding light and time
to help them bloom their way.

In the notebook

You feel like a mess and a screw-up, I know,
   but listen: what you are is real.
Real people have complex feelings and needs,
   and real life is a messy, screwy deal.

      You're doing great
      with your very full plate.

In the notebook

It hurts when I hear someone
  call a group of people "trash"
    (especially when it's about
      skin color or some such).

What stones are thrown
  from base and baseless hate,
    primitive tribalism,
      and crude indoctrination!

When your mind is free,
  it costs nothing to see
    people beyond your group
      as people.

In the notebook

This one is more soapbox-y than my usual; and as you can see, there were a lot more thoughts and feelings I had than I ended up including in the final (for now) version. Maybe I’ll incorporate some of those other pieces into future efforts. I’m guessing the main work ahead of me on this track will be about further exploring and/or expressing my feelings of anger about this stuff.

To question 
   all that you believe
can feel 
   like facing death,
but I promise, 
   on the other side,
there's life--
   and freer breath.

In the notebook

The grief that you carry
   is yours to bear--
and the ache 
   of aloneness you feel--
but so is the light 
   that is only yours
and the power 
   you solely can wield.

In the notebook

Uncertainty can make you scared.
Certainty can make you scary.

Uncertainty is bravery 
  facing hard questions.
Certainty is fear 
  dressed up as answers.

Uncertainty lets truth steer, 
  even if it goes off road.
Certainty just lets fear drive, 
  even if it runs over creatures in its path.

In the notebook

Push your boundaries, 
      not your body.

Raise your standards, 
      not your scope.

Stretch your liberty, 
      not your limits.

Learn to claim, 
      not to cope.

In the notebook

I tried to serve the King with every breath
and never question. Loyal, low, I stayed.
I served Him until living felt like death,
for which, down on my knees, I wished and prayed.

I saw no other way out—till, bereft,
I slipped outside the castle walls and left.

Astonishment: out here was life and joy,
and all along, the High King was a ploy,

and I was the true queen of my domain.
Now, with kindness, truth, and growth, I reign.

In the notebook

Can I moggy find
     my foggy mind?

   The clay grouds
      of gray clouds

      and mist seep
       (by missed sleep)

   and skew my
          mind’s sky.

This rhyme attests:
   it’s time to rest.

In the notebook

It’s been a tired time for my body and mind these days, and yesterday my mind was painfully foggy, so I started writing this poem for self-soothing/amusement.

When you’re already tired, 
  and you fall in the rain, 
when life just feels 
   like pain after pain,
and in the news, chaos 
   and cruelty reign,
you want a rope to grasp—

so, link by link, 
   you make a chain:
you add bits of beauty, 
   glimmers of grace,
pieces of purpose, 
   kindness, and space—
and you make some hope to clasp.

(I did actually have a bad fall in the rain yesterday evening, pulled down by our Border Collie. Thankfully nothing’s broken, just bruised…and now I have this poem.)

In the notebook

In the notebook

I’ve been reflecting on various aspects of denial lately, including how it shows up in my own life, past and present. I expect I’ll be writing more on it, but for now, here’s a short poem in the style of my girl, Emily Dickinson.

Oh, the comfort of denial—
the sweet without the salt—
the predetermined smile—
till reality’s assault.

In the notebook

In the notebook

I actually wrote this song chorus a year ago, but it still feels helpful, and I hope to add verses and record it sometime soon.

I’ve worried that others might find it too cheesy and/or saccharine (as I’m aware my stuff can tend toward), so/but I’ll keep working on it, because the concept here is important and helpful to me.

It helps lift me out of stressy insistence on my plans and agendas and remind me that whatever I get/get done on any given day is, in fact, a gift! I’m still alive—that in itself is a gift!

Reflections in prose

This poem is for reciting in my mind when I notice myself stressing, especially about the immediate future (as I’ve been doing today).

I can’t control the future, and trying to just drags me down.

What works better is to focus on connecting with myself as best I can in the hectic here-and-now.

That’s my steady rock in the stormy river, where I can take refuge, whatever the river brings.

In the notebook

In our world,
     the vulnerable--
     like women--
          need protecting
     from the men
          who make the plans.

I want a world where
     women
          make the plans
     and men
          do the protecting
     of the vulnerable.

In the notebook