monday evening

pulling you up as mud cakes your sandals

tears in your eyes about stars

I understand this emotion

I knew we would be friends

and I could cry about the fit

about how you say that you always had a sense that

God exists

the golden evening on your parent’s porch

we exist

slowly

like children unaware of

how summer will end

I have this sense

you are

with earth and sycamore and

water

eyes shining

both hands up

I have this sense that your love has the rare depth

of excitement

it is a privilege to love you as

a sister

july

you cannot ever have it all

isn’t that the point?

to want and

desire

feeling the lack and hitting the wall

again to climb

the passion of pursuit

there’s a joy in seeking

my dear

hard work has its own payoff

holding your hands

praying again for rain

it has rained all july

holding your head

underneath is

a little boy

and I want to grow with you

I want to grow 

I made feelings

an idol

I am not enough in my own mind

burrow in your skin

to feel closer

to have your sticky shoulders

I don’t know how to 

let go

I am screaming for comfort

to be enough.

covered in your skin to just
forget
to protect the little I house
to silence the idol
I hate.

asking for forgiveness

prayer

by your open door

it’s raining on me

you don’t even have a shirt on

you are hiding in a blanket

i can feel my pulse in my chest

i don’t know where to sit

i am glad, really

that it took this long

to return to your home
to see that you're human
to cry finally
and not be afraid

healing takes an openness
to see

yes i love you

you wouldn't give up on me
the emotion of it all
the focus
is dripping into my heart
my body
love is a strong word
yes.
i love you.

new

in the car
in the dirt
it is so terrifying to see
jealousy
as the waitress so easily gets you to talk

you are distracted by lights
glass
i am trying to catch your gaze
i am trying to open you
but are my efforts
boxing you in?

maybe i need to let go
back to day one
go back go back
back to day one
where we agreed to not hurt one another
where we agreed to take it day by day

you wanted
you waited
i can be steady
i can wait
i will trust

blur

there’s you

through bits

of trying to fill the hollow that life sometimes brings

a sadness that is free and vague

I expect better of myself

I expect more

a wind I ache for

makes it hard to see

my hair is now long enough

to fall in my eyes

sunlight is a blessing

but what happens when

I decide I need it

and it’s not around?

blurry-eyed and wanting

focus

wanting to shake this

unfamiliar distrust

wanting to forget scattered 

thoughts

I don’t want to use you

to gain clarity

I don’t just want to use you

to feel better

room 155 eating thai
it is pretty warm in this little room
and the piano sounds are a bit warped
i wish i had the confidence to
play to you what i know

\\

you look down and find
the best rocks by the creek
your collection all fossils and shapes
mine all color
now lined on my window sill
from biggest to smallest
are yours by the bathroom sink
in your parent's home?

//

the trees at night
and the buildings are more beautiful
slightly masked
highlighted by street lights
holding your hand and looking up

\\

in your car talking about

homes

and windows

and lots of color

and that mural that may become the lifetime work

rooftop gardens

clean lines

i like how you get to talking

and just don't stop

forgive

i can when
i remember how you
washed me in your grace

sinking into the water
the glow of the sun above
still
unbreathing

i am caught off-guard
when i see my own
decay
a darkness i want to hide

but one touch
one encounter with just the hem
of your robe
one word
one cleansing in your river

i am then
able to give so much
more

i am then able to see

past fear

"my dear, my dear

the only one limiting you

is you,"

I hear myself tell my friend

as I crumble the deteriorating porch step

with my right foot

concrete falling

risk

it

slide guitar and windows cracked

it’s folk Friday on NPR

it is June and so cold

You are here in my

Bones

the cadence of your steadiness 

in the rise and fall

of the sun

of my breathing chest

in my listening and in my chatter

You are here in my DNA and

You are supplying the faith

enough faith

for today

be near me 

let your presence urge me

forward

let your spirit grow

me 

to struggle past fear

the streams he couldn’t control

the rush that knocked down fortifications

truths I

operated under

things I didn’t even know

steadied me

the unfastening

has taught me to second guess

what an ugly

wound

need

i need exhalation

i am reminded within the hollows

within the sunlight

driving too fast

thinking, thinking

the silence

i need a sound

i need a purpose

together

stromboli in the

oven

it is apparent that

I’m

not the same

messy about emotions

laughing about it

together

shrubs and trains and milkweed

surround the hill

you just hold me so sweetly

something I cannot

let go of

I need the familiarity of family

coming home

to mom singing African hymns and

bringing flowers for grandma

let’s talk about nothing and something

the release of the day in my mother’s wink

at the table with everyone

while grandma rambles on
and Simon grabs more watermelon

the light in my little room as the world

darkens

the white blanket and pages and pages

of fashion

inward

it is because I am afraid

not because I am any better

it is because I don’t want to see

the mess of emotion

the unsorted words

and heaviness

I am afraid of the sensation of

losing control and saying things

I do not mean

or maybe deeply mean

I wouldn’t want that transfer

to define the ones I love

current

your anger

a current you’re riding

verbal rage

spewing the hurt of neglect

sadly I thought

listening could help

“Get out of my fucking car,”

you said.

I’m angry now too

but I won’t say a word.

the hint

it’s

the overly sweet taste of

that Sunday and I’m remembering

the words about smiling

“Would it kill you to smile?”

finally

remnants of caramel and

chocolate and espresso

shallow breathing

trying to remain calm

because that is my only defense

if I can just be

I snapped

my own anger never a

yell

only hinted by sarcastic

jabs said steadily

more calm than you

monday

in the kitchen

in the one triangle of light

your smile is infectious

I’m glad we’re dancing

snitching cookie dough together

I’m so delighted that

we are us

the embrace of grace

grace has always been your arms

around me

holding me up

filling gaps

with substance

with love

with you

& every insufficiency
every "not enough"
pulls me only
to the full reality of
you

full & safe
weaknesses pulling me
nearer
what a beautiful heart
you have

oh,
you have always been
& you are
you will always be
enough

my car: a sanctuary

a little time in your

sunlight

& I’m unraveled

I’ll take a little more

my wind, my rain

I want 
it all

& looking up

the difference is

i'm rooted now

and looking up

eternal and open

i have expanded
because of you


green hues and an open field
and all that sky
remembering the life
rushing into
that moment
into me
when you found me
when grace became my song
and love my guide


because of you
i am infinite

snap

the snap of nostalgia
like a rubber band on my wrist
the sting of things forgotten
and found again
through a saved paper
through a faded
note

gather

woolgathering within my wistful filters
memories play out like little movies

the way light moves
the way dust whirls
sitting by the heat vent
waiting for warmth

wind or music
or a touch bring me right back
to a feeling
a time
but
the reality of past is fragile
and is it even true?
or are memories all
gathering cobwebs within
my wistful filters?

just the opposite

"i feel like you are the sun
and i am the tree,"
you said.
but i
think
it is just the opposite.

you expand my heart

this is together
this is now
and I'm caught by
your eyes

crucified with you
ripped open
made grateful
my heart will never be
the same

oh,
the way you love
is extravagant

makes a person whole

I can think of no greater passion

than kindness

gentle words

no-strings-love

giving giving giving

a grace that costs

an unconditional love that

inspires sincerity

fills the gaps

makes a person whole

too willing

you explode

I implode

smoke
that I too willingly
sucked in

words have a way of

filling hollows

jagged edges

you stood there and said
that nothing is a
clean
break
there will always be jagged edges
a tear split
impersonal assessment
as you talked about christmas in
the hospital five years ago
and never even having the chance to say
goodbye

stirring

i.

language chained me

words lacked the proper

blow

frantic screaming in the car

about worth

is it worth it?

ii.

no bitterness for

those who produce a vision

the pain of relationships

the rot of monotony

the harvest is

meaning.
the harvest is
coming.

iii.

beautiful beautiful beautiful

you promised to

come.

your will be done
your will be done
your will be done.

free

i'm not afraid of the shadows anymore
they cannot limit us
because i know the one who makes
all
things
new

listen

I heard you in the tender

moment

of giving when you filled

their hearts with joy

and the fullness of vulnerability

was palpable

with tears and sunlight

beautiful hearts ripped open

and on display

in the parking lot

I grabbed that love

I won’t let go

like david

there was that fear that  coffee

would stain me

into something plain and

that the rags would define

me instead of something slightly more interesting

or beautiful.

it is painful facing

self

I hit the floor

a clang I felt over and over

reverberating humiliation

breakers that pulled me away from

the hand with my name

written in, I imagine,

green ink

it is rain and sun

that grows me

it is presence and

life-light that

expands even my subconscious

self-limitations

like david

I am learning worship

in the field

hemmed in by you
like david
I am fighting the beasts
with the help
of the almighty

feb 7

give me your shadows

give me your all

all I require is

that you show up

when I call

loose ends

my shoes are untied
and i am waiting
for your
smile
not because i'm helpless
i promise
i just like it when
you're near enough to tie
my loose ends

Did you learn to love?

When I finally get there

When I finally get to stand before you

When you finally ask me,

“Did you learn to love, Roberta?”

I want, desperately, to say yes

I want to talk about how your love

Infiltrated and mixed within me

Stirred me up and woke me

To beauty and honesty

I want to say your name

To say that you are my love

That I learned from you

When you found me

And that this blend

This give and take

This union changed my eyes

Changed my lips

Changed my hands

Changed my heart

The beauty of you

Taught me how to truly love others

The beauty of you

Tied my heart

My body

My mind

To you

my heart is moved

You are the color

that paints this morning

It is spring and I am gulping new air

You are words

that decorate my heart

It is spring and I miss You so much

You are intuitive movement

tenderly showing me sky and stillness

It is spring and I am rising from dirt

2013

my fingerprints are your lines

patterns of you

my hope

ingrained and swirling

help me look 

for you

everyday. 

a song

you have always been a song to me
trickling into cracks
filling me
with light

my melody

I am melody

with lows softly rising

to new heights

to life that swells
draw near to hear
my cadence

this beating heart

these clapping hands

my open declarations

of love for you

there is more

today I realized

the frailty

of my body

feelings in flux

hidden sickness hissing through

veins

the

rules to follow

just won’t heal this infirmity

but you broke into me

with words

saying

I love your heart

more than air

more than any tree

I love you more than the sky

I am here

calling out the restless depths in you

that long for more

I am here 

rest.

I am here

with scars that healed

I am here, arms wide

waiting

for you 

for you to return home

my incomplete list of small pleasures

Contagious smiles

Poems read aloud

Polka dot socks

Morning light                       

Breakfast with a good friend

Snow while driving

Leaving others baked goods on the sly

Barefoot traveling

Good handwriting days

Open windows

Coffee on the porch

Rereading an old favorite book

Learning a new word

Beginnings

Bad nicknames

Celebrating with silly party hats

Ridiculous puns

Songs defining time

Old lady stories

no need for penance

You say hit me

But

I want to cry out

To make a cut

To give you a piece of

My heart

To let you feel

That I forgave you

before I entered

the things we want we choose

this is the start of the belief

that I am never

trapped.

open

you held me there

with gentle grace

you taught an angry heart

to open

again and again

I breath in this

life

this embrace has found the 

core of me

sinking, rising

roots sink deeper and deeper

into earth, into dirt

but if I stay there I

deny the undeniable

the truth of the tree rising

towards light

nov. 24

you've penetrated skin

with spoken words

snow falling on my coat

it is too quiet in this house

of mine

it is too loud in this restless mind

but I can sit here

I can rest 

with You.

learning

could

you ever earn

back

balance

my trust?

I seem to stammer though the

yells

now and then

and then dissociate completely

but part of me knows

love is more

love means more

love conquerors more

love pays 

all debt

worship

joy and mutual love—beauty

in our unrehearsed declaration

in our human form and impossibilities

in the very depths drawing out

the fullness

of simple worship

the gun

if I hate you I hate me too

you looked at me with tears in your eyes

I couldn’t even connect with

the fragile and strong alike

on your face

if I hate you I hate me too

and every person because we are all capable of letting anger become a gun that

shatters

the fragile and strong alike

if I hate you I hate me too

I said it with a tremor because I felt deeply

fragile and strong alike

because I just cannot take these

wounds without a fight

today at the deli

Tell me

do you bury 

your regrets

with every

nuance of restoration?
sanding away years

Little one, have you

Seen too much?

The old house

a project

with An End in mind.

your efforts have paved
little lines around your focused eyes

your house needs mending, yes
but I forgot to tell you that

you don't have to

work alone

aren't we all hobbling around
with hurts that need
a heart to burn and a touch to reassure
and a love to heal?

elemental

In the coffee

Like

up to my knees

Spilling stuff and

He is taking

(without my incessant

analyzing all the whys)

such a keen interest in stuff

that hurts so much

And now everything is blurry

Because emotions are sometimes

They. just.

 happen.

and

that

is no simple thing

stars

stare into the clear sky
feeling inadequate in the universe

dance in a parking lot
with a girl i want to kiss

get breakfast at ihop
and laugh about things that are only funny when you're tired

feel the rush
of plummeting down a rollercoaster's hill

feeling inadequate in the universe
with a girl i want to kiss
and laugh about things that are only funny when you're tired
of plummeting down a rollercoaster's hill

stare into the clear sky
dance in the parking lot
get breakfast at ihop
feel the rush

stare into
a girl

get tired
of down

i want
only
the rush

the universe
to kiss
and laugh

and feel

Hope is not Fragile

I am dirt
with breakable bones
and aging skin

I am heart
with aching desires, with blood
and pulsing movement

I am light
with an unspoken Word
bursting life

I am one
with You
and my finite complexities are
complete in eternal love

my expression

i am around only for a short

time to express clearly

and tenderly my love

death

i am choosing a death
of my own plans and
the quiet beauty of it is so humbling

For You

 I love the way

You simplify me

to breath and movement

and desire

For You.

your love

& now
somehow
i'm not thinking about my imperfections
no
i'm thinking about you
i'm thinking about
your love
& a miracle is happening
somehow
this opening, this love
is the remedy
that is healing even the residue of
those deep cuts

wind

this rushing
this wind
took this shell
shook this shell
and awakened
a desire
reverberating back
to your heart

i am shaking and
waking and wanting your love
more
and more

so breathe
so dance
so fling open your longing
'cause i
am yours

all things new

i remember when you spoke to me
and i
without question
because of love
(because of love!)
forgot my inabilities
forgot who i'm not
and felt fully the intense delight of who
you said i am

feed my heart
feed my spirit
i'm not satisfied yet

need

wall

the light

find the light
i heard you say
over and over
it was a rhythm
it was a song
a part of my breathing and
ultimately my heart

i traced the freckles on my hand back to
the dirt
i made my home in the familiarity of
the known
what i see
everyday mundane
my thinking, my perceiving

but finally finally
i looked up
and so
i flung open
all words and melody cleansing 
and so
i found you.

sincere

push & pull

the business

it seems

blackout

keep going

push forward

falling

for such a thing

falling into the world

of hunger and disappointment

the grit and ache of

fitting together  all the frayed

bits

falling
into the embrace

connected to

a touch that heals

a depth that satisfies

the falling

falling falling

into

pain

into

love.

a prayer

give me a
heart
  that is not afraid

to yearn

the melody

I traced your lips

  singing the same

               melody

 and I

 found

 the tears

             of

 feeling more

       than this life can
                        hope to satisfy

 that truth

      —a hollowness

       in this body,

       a shaking like none other,

       a weariness resonating

           the steady invitation 

                     for more

the same

You

on my couch

spewing words

a song of sorts

that wouldn’t end.

I sunk to forget my choices

wishing I was

elsewhere

deeper into the floor

trying to erase

the past shame.

Chet

“something profound and

beautiful is happening in you and you don’t know

how to take it”

I am twirling my straw

attempting not to

cry

for once you

are right.

bursting

sitting in your car

trying to understand

trying to communicate well

being vulnerable and open

trying to not let any bitterness or misunderstanding get between us

—that is beauty.

I still go back to that

(over and over, actually)

I still go back to

the felt joy of meeting you at all

letting gratefulness suture

those gaping holes of fear

of doubt

I will keep trusting
that I will see you again

probably under that pine tree

with a celebratory cupcake

meteor shower

when you’re 7 the middle of the night is

so startling

but she has that smile and

I’m so curious why

we sneak outside

resting our blanket on the warm concrete

right in the middle of the street

she points up

207 was the official count

I will never forget

free

freedom

is the newness that greets my mornings

the softness that meets hurried sighs

finding me with

pretenses unraveling  

in a space without limits 

grateful

sometimes

I forget—

when I focus too much on little things that will not last—

I forget
about beauty

truly we are all a part of

beauty  

&

how privileged

I am

to see 

at all

snippets

i.

I shoved my desk

across my room

it now faces the window

for painting

ii.

the mailman finally

took the note we wrote

(thanking him for his unending service,

excluding federal holidays)

just as I was about to write him

another

iii.

dancing with a one year old

is simply

the best.

summer

I will

give in to summertime

telling fear a simple

no

I will

be untidy about lines

freedom in

coffee stains and

a lamp and a guitar

psalms felt with spirit

with passion

I will

risk it all to hear

just the sound of your voice

just the whisper at night

with the fan on low

I will

admit I have been slow

in growing

but summer

I hear

is when things swell

homesick

i know you've been waiting
with arms open
and a heart ready
i know you've been waiting for me
to come home

restless

what if a year from now I am still mopping floors

the same place, the same old

windows facing a parking lot with the sunrise

in the morning

will I doubt

will I plead with raw skin

with eyes down

with a heart unsatisfied

facing the brick wall

tracing the past

to please please please

have

something

new

You.

I miss

you

in the all-consuming

crying in the checkout line

buying bananas

sort of way.

I have not forgotten

how easily we became best friends.

I will not forget.

hope

find me within

nightfall

meet my

brokenness

heal with your steady whisper

because I know you

I know you

I know you think the best

of me

even when I offer filthy rags

home

snow is covering me

little branches

are still reaching out

up

I will return

I will return home

Sting

Choppy thoughts and messed up hair

Miles to sort out

My eyes are welling too much

Lately

I’ve wanted to cover some of the

Freedom

I’ve found

Regressing back to sarcasm

Back to sleep.

smile

gold hues

wispy clouds

we’re chucking donuts

(our favorite kinds)

off the jones’ memorial

when I’m with you

I feel like a kid again

living deep
without thinking about

time

bright afternoon

the release of

closing my eyes

lost in melody

with an old friend

saying nothing

drinking soda from bottles
light flickering through bare trees

driving home

tonight

I want you to

know

that I see this is painful

your eyes were down

and I wanted to just

hold your

shaking hands

free

I think the beauty of this is that

it is beyond us

in a way that is causing us to open

freeing

both pain and love

and maybe now is about

focusing on that
focusing on

freeing more pain

freeing more love

deeper

I needed to give

beyond what I thought

possible

so I sat on the floor

and remembered your

heart

the pause

grinding coffee

you met my glance

gently asked me to talk

tears brimming and red-faced

I confessed my pain

the pressure

how much I care

I needed to be heard

wanted to be open
however raw and unkempt

and you

you listened

you shared the weight

your beautiful heart

paused for me

communion

this time

it will be more than a taste

this time

it will surpass

shifting emotions or what I see as reality

this time

I will swallow the bread

take you in

and claim

that you have always been

enough

I love you

for the fragments I offer

for

my feeble love

I am

swelling into something

spacious

into a life mended

by the spirit who

never

gives up

liar's paradox

when i apologized on the phone
she said everything to deny my wrongdoing
but we never talked again
cause i think she finally saw the truth in it

i wish i didn't tell her
because it was only true once i said it

give

i can give
up dreams
but i can't stop
giving
love.