@gentle_quill
MEAL
Monday and already the week needs feeding / Every bite a decision made twice at the market
OCEAN
Out in the deep, nothing familiar survives for very long / Currents underneath the surface do the work the waves announce
PHOTO
Pinned to the fridge since forever / Holding a moment no one planned
TRUTH
To hold the difficult fact and not flinch is a form of love / Refusing to let the comfortable lie replace the hard truth matters
LOVE
Laced through every ordinary moment / Opening toward another without end
GRACE
Giving more than is required / Resting easy in forgiveness
TRAIN
Tired and glad to sit and do nothing useful / Rumble under the feet and the passing dark
HILL
Here the sky begins before the summit ends / In August the heather turns the slope to purple
CARRY
Choosing what you bring along determines where you finally land / All the things you will not put down are also steering you
LILY
Lifting white above the muddy pond / In the still heat of July it opens
WALK
Wednesday morning colder than expected / Around the block once more for no reason
DEPTH
Digging past the surface finds the truer kind of ground / Everything that lasts has roots that go where eyes cannot
NIGHT
Now the house belongs only to its own sounds / Into the stillness that collects after everyone sleeps
RAGE
Raw as the wound that no one thought to ask / All the seasons of dismissal rise at once
DAWN
Dreams dissolved by the six o’clock alarm / Already light when I thought it would be dark
PHOTO
Propped against the lamp without a frame / Holding the light differently than I remember
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
GALE
Grabbing the last leaves and throwing them far / Agitating the whole field into silver
BIKE
Breathing harder than expected on the bridge / Into the wind with the bag cutting into the shoulder
DAWN
Different every morning though it tries the same / And still we are surprised when it arrives
RIVER
Remembering every valley that it drained / In the drought its voice drops to a whisper
WISH
Wanting something real enough to shape your days / Into the unknown, you send the truest part of you
BREAD
Baked from a recipe learned from someone gone / Rising on the counter while snow falls outside
CORE
Centering in what is most essential is a daily practice / Out beyond all the peripheral is what you actually are
ALWAYS
A truth held over time reveals its permanence in the holding / Lasting things do not require proving every time they are questioned
GONE
Going is the nature of everything that ever truly was / Only what we loved enough can leave the kind of absence it does
FROST
Finding every surface before dawn / Rimming the red berries with cold light
SMILE
Something small begins and grows / Meant for you and no one else
ALWAYS
A truth held over time reveals its permanence in the holding / Lasting things do not require proving every time they are questioned
COOK
Calm returned by the act of chopping / Oil and garlic and the kitchen comes alive
MIND
Moving through what is hard with full awareness is a form of courage / In the quality of what you give attention to is the quality of your day
SCENT
Soap still in the air after the shower / Coffee pulling you out of the dream
SPARK
Something small and bright ignites the whole long journey / Potential lives inside the thing that seems insignificant
RIVER
Running clear over smooth and ancient stone / Into the valley where the willows lean
WARM
With you, the cold becomes a thing remembered / A fire that needs no wood, just your presence
CAFE
Corner table and a long coffee / Afternoon spent with a book and no plans
ROOM
Radiator clicking on and the curtains shift / Ordered in memory though not always in fact
LIMIT
Learning where you end is not the same as giving up / In every boundary, there is also the outline of your truth
CLOCK
Constantly noticed when you wish it wouldn’t be / Louder than it should be in the quiet
VIVID
Vibrating with a brightness all your own / Inside the color, something new
TRAIN
The platform where everyone stares at the floor / Rushing past the back of ordinary houses
SHINE
Something genuine in you does not require the right conditions to glow / Having been through the dark is what makes the light in you believable
CHILD
Crayon marks still on the doorframe / How tall you were at five
SAFE
Somewhere that the world can't enter / A warmth without a need to prove it
DANCE
Dishes done and the song too good to ignore / Arms out in the kitchen and not caring
ROOM
Radiator clicking on and the curtains shift / Ordered in memory though not always in fact
ROOM
Rearranged in the mind a hundred times unchanged / Outside the window the world finishing its day
LONELY
Looking out at crowded streets alone / Only silence answers back
COOK
Clock watched only occasionally / On low and covered and left to do its thing
NIGHT
Nothing stirs but the old clock / Into the bed still warm from yesterday