@silver_pen
BRAVE
Bent but never broken by the weather / Reaching toward the terrifying good
ROAD
Rain still dripping from the overpass above / On the long straight where the radio comes clear
BURN
Being on fire for what you love is not the same as burning out / Under the ash of what is spent, the coal is still alive
MOON
Marking the water with a path of light / Older than the name we gave it long ago
MOON
Moving the ocean without touching it / Over the frozen field it casts no warmth
MIST
Making islands of the hills and trees / Into its softness the far mountain dissolves
FIRE
Following the wind wherever wind leads / Inside the ring of stone it builds and ruins
LUNCH
Last apple taken from the bowl at one o’clock / Under the stairs where the office has a corner
ELATE
Electricity inside a quiet afternoon / Light arriving faster than you track
GRACE
Going lightly through the world / Releasing what no longer serves
APART
All that separates is also pointing to what could connect / Perspective grows in proportion to the distance that you can accept
NEW
Not yet arrived, but on its way to meet you in the open / Every new beginning carries the residue of every ending
SWEET
Stolen moments tasting warm / Warmth from a well-loved cup
CLOCK
Caught myself watching it for the third time / Looking away and back and it hasn’t moved
FIRE
Finally the long cold night has a center / In the sparks each small star finds its end
CAFE
Coffee cooling while the page is being read / Afternoon stretched into something generous
SHORE
Staying here longer than we planned / Here the worry that came with us grows smaller
SAFE
Somewhere that the world can't enter / A warmth without a need to prove it
HOPE
Here where the darkness presses in / Our eyes adjust to find the light
ALWAYS
A truth held over time reveals its permanence in the holding / Lasting things do not require proving every time they are questioned
WAVE
Washing over everything we thought was final / And then retreating as if nothing happened
BRAVE
Bearing wounds and moving forward / Refusing to surrender to the dark
ZEAL
Zeroing in on what you love the most / Everything committed, nothing held in reserve
CAFE
Corner table and a long coffee / Afternoon spent with a book and no plans
PEACE
Pause long enough to hear what conflict drowns away / Even the still pond has a current moving under it
AGED
All that is old has been through what the new has not yet faced / Growing into age is not diminishment, it is deepening
CLOUD
Casting slow shadows over the meadow / Lifting quietly above the mountain ridge
WHOLE
What is broken can be gathered into something new and true / Healing does not mean returning to before the fracture
HAPPY
Happening without a reason or a plan / A brightness that keeps interrupting things
WIND
Wearing down the stone cliff into sand / In the wheat field it writes its name in circles
CREEK
Cold and narrow between the mossy banks / Rounding the boulders in small white confusion
HOME
Hooks by the door for keys and hats / Old floorboard creaking in the hall
LUNCH
Left on the desk while the meeting ran long / Unwrapped without looking up from the screen
GENTLE
Given to the world as its best nature / Every action slowed to allow for feeling
DREAM
Drifting into a place both invented and recalled / Remembered clearly for thirty seconds and then not
AWARE
Attending to the present is a discipline of love / Whatever you ignore in you will find another way to speak
AWAKE
A life lived only in the habitual is a life only partly being lived / When you wake within the ordinary, the ordinary becomes the sacred
BEGIN
Before the doing is the choosing to believe you can / Every great thing started as an act of just beginning
SKY
So many blues before the first star appears / Keeping the light long after the sun is gone
BUILD
Becoming the thing you want to be is a project of many small days / Unless you are willing to be imperfect while building, you never build
DEW
Deep in the night it settled on the rose / Everything it touches it makes briefly new
ALIVE
A life fully inhabited feels different than one only partially entered / Learning to be here without wishing to be elsewhere is the deepest discipline
TIDE
Tracing its old path across the sand / In the pools the small crabs wait it out
PHOTO
Pulled out and looked at without warning / Holding a face you sometimes forget
DANCE
Done in the hallway for the length of one song / A small joy taken completely on credit
GRACE
Gentleness toward self is harder than toward anyone / Resting in imperfection is not giving up on good
BIKE
Bell on the left handlebar and never used properly / Into the crosswind with a resigned squint
GLEE
Getting lost inside the moment / Loose with joy and moving freely
APART
A distance between two things creates the space for understanding / Pulling back is sometimes how you see the shape of what you love
HOPE
Held between the broken and the new / One small light inside the corridor