As you can see by this magnificent image, my cousin David Eckels TREAT YOURSELF is a skilled photographer. This year we’ve engaged in a serendipitous dialogue between his images and my poems. On both sides, (speaking for the both of us I hope), we’ve been surprised at the stories delivered. This image, it’s timing, breadth and evocation jolted me to…
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When The Great Archer stood upon the uppermost crag of scrambled complexity He stood not alone. Nearest the elbow holding the bow — the Begotten One to send ahead. On opposite flank — the Promising Wind to guide the arrow into the void. Notching the visionary arrow, groaning to draw back the bow, aiming for freedom, piercing love flew like…
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We desire what we have never known. “In speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on…
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Ours is a Story of Repair Ours is a story of repair. We came to it broken. Torn images, missing scenes. You remember a red butterfly. I remember yellow angel trumpets. We wanted honey. Bees were everywhere. And they stung, never the same bee, never the same reaction. We made our own hives and stored our questions. Did the…
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Song of a Bruised Camellia Whether I’d like to admit it or not, I’m not the flower everyone thinks I am. I am not the flower. I am not her. Not that one. I am another one. Whether I’d like to admit it or not, my fragrance is not the one most preferred. I’m not that fragrance. I’m not her….
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This is an excerpt from my book, Intents & Purposes. Learn more about Intents & Purposes here. Yellow. The suitcase is as close to yellow as any other color. For a surprise, the sisters wrap it with ribbons. The brothers scratch blessings in its yellow side. The lovers latch arms. This is why they think they are strong, why they believe they have…
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She knows nothing. Less than nothing. This is what she knows. She has agreed to what she does not know, to what she believes will be easy. Something black. Something white. Knowing she knows nothing happens later. This is now. Now she does not cry. She leaves her weeping behind. Behind is where her weeping remains. A ring is slipped…
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In every man’s heart, there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty – Christopher Morley
Refusing Despair Refusing Despair, we surrendered to Hope. We remembered and marked the disasters along the way. Returning to the forgotten, we nearly drowned for fear of the depths. But Faith carried us forward. We opened our eyes. We unstopped our ears. Truth showed us what we ignored, what we innocently witnessed. We learned life had always been…
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This is what happens when the fireball in the sky lands in your dream and you have to listen to its flames and have to make sense of the blazing language that climbs up on your tongue and starts it wagging. A light gets turned on. All those dark nights turn into summer and you begin to see why the…
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“The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God…
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