I go down to the river to pray
I go down to the river to pray. /
Its water tumbles to the Mississippi, /
a major artery, open to the open sea . . .
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Driving north on Highway 21 to a doctor’s appointment
A blindingly bright January morning. /
In the distance ahead, to the east, /
a wink, /
a glint of metallic shimmer. -
(2017, Virginia)
On the day that hate rode into town /
We visited our neighbor in her new home /
She is over 90 years old -
Thirteen ways of looking at the garden
After the city, the garden /
is quiet, the leaves green /
enough to absorb every cry. -
Of death and pascha
WHAT PERSISTS /
there is the void /
there is the heavy immovable stone . . . -
Resurrection among the ruins
Can there be resurrection /
among the ruins? /Dare we imagine new life /
rising from these streets of death? -
Blue Psalter Hymnal #379: Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow
Children crack palm nuts milked of fats, / stripped of orange. They smack / nuts on rocks, split out the kernel of ndika . . .
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Three hundred years after a forest burns,
it grows back fully / Six days after the flames / black bears return for berries. / The restoration / of the world leaks /through a broken dam
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Weaving time
Mary spins and the thread twists / at just the right moment. / The tension tight, she winds it / on the shaft and then smoothly presses another bit of wool, / pinches the thread, sees it wind into true.
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‘I like your scarf’
Says the mom, picking her kid up from / daycare / “I like your scarf” / Says the teenager in Dundas Square / “I like your scarf” / Says the woman in the grocery store as I reach for the eggs / We all smile gently as we gesture / At our own chests, our own hearts
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‘We worship you, Immanuel’
(Melody: ‘O God, our help in ages past’) Lyrics: Anne van Arragon 1941-Music: William Croft 1678-1727
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Arts & Culture | Food | Poetry
Cabbages is beautiful
In cabbage, each leaf laid /
so closely against another, /
creation is unfurling . . .
