Blessing the Boats

may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that

-- Lucille Clifton, 1936 - 2010

Loneliness' Golden Lining

When you wake up in the morning and 
out of nowhere 
comes the heartache of alienation and loneliness, 

could you use that as a golden opportunity? 

Rather than 
persecuting yourself 
or feeling that something terribly wrong is happening, 

right there in the moment 
of sadness and longing, 

could you relax and touch the 
limitless space of the human heart?

-- Pema Chödrön
(arranged quote, from article on Six Kinds of Loneliness)

Morning Poem

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead ---
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging ---

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted ---

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.

- Mary Oliver

The poor folks

"Wonder what the poor folks are doing today?"

He let out a sigh
and settled back on his overturned bucket,
as relaxed and satisfied
as if he were reclining in an easy chair
and putting up his feet.

"Who?" I asked, the first time I heard him say this.

"Those poor folks
who have so much
they don't know what to do with it," he said,

gesturing expansively around the small room.
Here was all he required in life, almost within arm's reach:
food, warmth, tobacco, good company.
What need had he of anything more?

-- T. Louise Freeman-Toole, writing about her friend Dave, an old-timer from Eagle, Alaska