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1

Summer Heat

Phyllis Babcock   The hot days of summer came on very quickly heat became oppressive drying the soil at a rapid rate fields started to show drought garden leaves hung from the sun’s heat animals looked for shade water became more sparse grass turning brown cracks appeared on the ground relentless the sun beat only […]

2

Keeping Quiet

Pablo Neruda   Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still. For once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language, let’s stop for a second, and not move our arms so much. It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines; we would all be […]

3

Sacred Ground

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer   And if, as I now know, the closet is sacred and the bare room is sacred and the sidewalk and classroom and the ER are sacred, then I trip into the teaching that everywhere is sacred— not only the church, but the alley. Not only the mosque, but the bench. Not […]

4

For When People Ask

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer    I want a word that means okay and not okay, a word that means devastated and stunned with joy. I want the word that says I feel it all all at once. The heart is not like a songbird singing only one note at a time, more like a Tuvan throat […]

5

You Reading This, Be Ready

William Stafford   Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a shining floor? What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air? Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now? Are […]

6

How to belong Be Alone

Padraig O Tuama     It all begins with knowing nothing lasts forever. So you might as well start packing now. But, in the meantime, practice being alive.   There will be a party where you’ll feel like nobody’s paying you attention. And there will be a party where attention’s all you’ll get. What you […]

7

Imperfection

Elizabeth Carlson   I am falling in love with my imperfections The way I never get the sink really clean, forget to check my oil, lose my car in parking lots, miss appointments I have written down, am just a little late. I am learning to love the small bumps on my face the big […]

8

There Is No Going Back

Wendell Berry   No, no, there is no going back. Less and less you are that possibility you were. More and more you have become those lives and deaths that have belonged to you. You have become a sort of grave containing much that was and is no more in time, beloved then, now, and […]

9

When Giving Is All We Have

Alberto Ríos   We give because someone gave to us. We give because nobody gave to us. We give because giving has changed us. We give because giving could have changed us. We have been better for it, We have been wounded by it. Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet, Big, though […]

10

Let Me Be A Rose Today

Sarah Salway   Naked in a green room, she needs no mirrors to applaud the way she stretches stems heavy with unruffled flowers, watches her petals gently fall sure they will stay as still as she left them, this scented carpet to wake up to when every day is new and every second hers alone. […]

11

The Dash Poem

By Linda Ellis   I read of a man who stood to speak At the funeral of a friend He referred to the dates on the tombstone From the beginning…to the end He noted that first came the date of birth And spoke the following date with tears, But he said what mattered most of […]

12

The Art of Blessing the Day

by Marge Piercy   This is the blessing for rain after drought: Come down, wash the air so it shimmers, a perfumed shawl of lavender chiffon. Let the parched leaves suckle and swell Enter my skin; wash me for the little chrysalis of sleep rocked in your plashing. In the morning the world is peeled […]

13

Invitation

Mary Oliver   Oh do you have time to linger for just a little while out of your busy and very important day for the goldfinches that have gathered in a field of thistles for a musical battle, to see who can sing the highest note, or the lowest, or the most expressive of mirth, […]

14

Hold Out Your Hand

Julia Fehrenbacher   Let’s forget the world for a while fall back and back into the hush and holy of now are you listening? This breath invites you to write the first word of your new story your new story begins with this: You matter you are needed—empty and naked willing to say yes and yes […]

15

Yes

Brian Doyle   I was on a gleaming elevator in a vast hotel in a huge city The other day when a man got on with his daughter about Age four. I asked her what floor they wanted and she said Seven million. I reached up as high as I could and pressed An imaginary […]

16

Rising to Resilience

Will we rise? Or just survive. Hesitate to shake hands Or grab everyone in a warm embrace. Will we still be kind? Or carry on blind. Moving back through the hustle and bustle Or continue to knock on our neighbours’ doors. Will we be grateful? Or just frustrated. Of time lost to do what we […]

17

Let your Life be your Art

Alix Koloff   Allow the golden, glistening moments to weave themselves Into an intricately crafted tapestry of experiences, Thread by thread Intertwining past, present, and future Into one awe-inspiring spectacle for the universe to behold here, now. Let your life be your art. The way you move your body As you work, on the street, […]

18

My Work

Mary Oliver   My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird – equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand. Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me […]

19

Over The Weather

Naomi Shihab Nye   We forget about the spaciousness above the clouds but it’s up there.The sun’s up there too. When words we hear don’t fit the day, when we worry what we did or didn’t do, what if we close our eyes, say any word we love that makes us feel calm, slip it […]

20

How The Light Comes

Jan Richardson   I cannot tell you how the light comes. What I know is that it is more ancient than imagining. That it travels across an astounding expanse to reach us. That it loves searching out what is hidden what is lost what is forgotten or in peril or in pain. That it has […]