DAWN
Dogs barking somewhere beyond the fence / A neighbor’s car warming up outside
WALK
Wind in the face and the coat barely enough / All the way to the end of the long path
DANCE
Done in the hallway for the length of one song / A small joy taken completely on credit
MEAL
Monday and already the week needs feeding / Every bite a decision made twice at the market
TREE
Turning toward the light before it understands / Reaching further than the winter said it could
MARSH
Making its own rules about land and water / All of it alive with hidden things
SNOW
Sealing the silence over the whole valley / Not one road in and not one road out
HOPE
How it persists is the real mystery / Only light explains the way it points
WORTH
What you carry inside you has a value no market ever named / Once you know your own worth, you stop selling it at a discount
CHILD
Cold hands from the walk and needing warming / Heavy bag dropped at the door with ceremony
PINE
Planted long ago now taller than the house / Its roots the depth of everything we know
PATH
Puddles in the same place every time it rains / All the familiar trees marking the distance
GLEN
Gathering the cold air into itself at night / Low mist moving in the early morning
BRAVE
Building something new from what was broken / Reaching past the limits of the comfort
WEEP
When the weight exceeds the frame it falls / Everything you held releases now
CHEER
Clapping for the one who almost fell / Holding space for someone else's win
PAIN
Passing through the burning toward the clearing / A message from the place that needs your care
BRAVE
Bent but never broken by the weather / Reaching toward the terrifying good
OCEAN
Old bones of ships lie quiet in the dark / Currents carrying heat from one world to the next
ALLOW
Accepting what is true about this moment takes the most courage / Letting what wants to come come is not giving up control