Sunlight

Morning light
Pushes
Tugs at my drowsiness
Creeps
And flashes towards me
Filling the room
Bouncing energy
Heating wisdom
And lifting my love
For a new day
To understand
Your light

December

The tide of Christmas
Swells around me
I wrap and twinkle
To find the blend
Of giving
Giving
Beyond my blessings
Sensitive to the pain
Lonliness
And loss
For others
Who hold themselves together
Season after season
With torn or broken
Ribbon
It is time to tie joy
Under my tree and theirs

A poem for Byrnes

Your death screamed
At reality
And poems broke out in song.

Your journey is over
But you mentored others
To read their moments out loud.

Your friends were proud
Childen were silent
And James Joyce's ghost bowed.

Trees

The fall leaves trace the light on the path as the maple tree looks down. I love trees. They honour me in their silent power. They have strength in their changes and gesture us to respect the present moment. I see the rain hug their trunks. I watch the wind duck or play in their arms. Their shadows map the way for birds in flight. Their lines layer nature's ego.  I will plant a tree with a naming ceremony at my new home and our family will measure our memories in the seasons.

Trees touching and kissing the daylight

After Midnight

At night
sound works harder
happiness floats
and I lie awake
heating my memories
so close to you.

I curl lines of poems
silent bars of music
on lip rolls 
as the pillow bites
and I skin the sheets

Then I find your arm
and your hand
in the dark
to lace fingers
blindly

our breath shakes
connects
as consciousness drops
reality pushes away 
and my thoughts
disappear.

MYSELF

Flat
Open
Crushing stories
of your pain
I kneel over my thoughts
bending closer to who I am.

My chin lifts
to scan a memory
an echo
of hope
I curl in my own arms.

Softly

Stronger
each day
finding narrow spaces
to live softly
unattached
to the shoulds
I catch a shadow
of new meaning
a crack
of free.