@winter_bloom
LAKE
Lying under the fog as if asleep / A colour between grey and silver and green
BLOOM
Between the stones a brave flower opens / Light finds it before anything else does
CHILD
Careful with a broken thing they found outside / Homework spread across the wrong table
SLEEP
Settling into the familiar dark / Legs heavy from the ordinary day
SAND
Smooth and cool below the waterline / All the warmth it holds from the long afternoon
FIELD
Filling now with the slow gold of July / Into the barley the wind writes its long name
REEF
Revealed at low tide as a different country / Each pool a universe in miniature
SUN
Slow across the sky the whole long day / Up in the highest branch the hawk is warm
TENDER
The skin of the world is thin today / Each word must land with extra care
ZEAL
Zooming past the voice that says slow down / Every drop of energy committed
WALK
Wet pavement reflecting the afternoon sky / Around the block just to get out of the room
PHOTO
Printed at a machine in the pharmacy / Hanging at an angle on the wall
GLEN
Going deep into the cleft the light narrows / Lichen-covered walls of stone on either side
COOK
Calm arrived somewhere between the second onion and the third / One pan the radio and forty-five minutes
QUIET
Quelling every restless thought / Under layers of noise, a stillness waits
ROSE
Reaching through the trellis for the light / Opening one petal at a careful time
REAL
Reaching past the performed self finds what actually is / Everything genuine costs more than everything pretended
FROST
Far into the night it does its quiet work / Riming the grass with a billion silver needles
TIDE
Turning back before it reaches the wall / Into the bay the cold water slides
HILL
Here the wind has worn the grass to silver / In the old turf roots remember rain
PRIDE
Planted deep in what you built yourself / Rising every time they said you wouldn't
ALONE
Aloneness is the state in which the self is most itself / Learning to be with yourself is the longest apprenticeship there is
NIGHT
Nine o’clock and already in the heavy phase / Inching through the last hour before bed
LONELY
Listening for a voice that understands / Over and over the silence answers back
GLEE
Growing large with something uncontained / Light that breaks through just for you
AFTER
A new beginning only starts on the far side of an ending / Following the hardest chapters often comes the clearest voice
DIARY
December pages always more detailed somehow / Ink slightly different in the entries after the move
YEARN
You lean toward the irretrievable / Every distance feels like hunger
FOG
From the west the fog comes up the inlet / Over the bridge and down the river road
RIVER
Running clear over smooth and ancient stone / Into the valley where the willows lean
EACH
Every single moment carries more than we are usually able to see / A life that honors each small thing is not a small life
TEA
The same mug used since the beginning of winter / Every morning the same small ceremony
VIVID
Very much awake to every color / Inside the living moment, everything is sharp
VIVID
Vibrating with a brightness all your own / Inside the color, something new
RISE
Returning to the surface after the dive is how you bring the depth to light / In the very act of rising, you prove that the falling was not the final word
WORTH
Whenever you act as though you matter, you begin to make it more true / Only the self that claims its worth can offer it usefully to others
PEACE
Pulling back the curtain on the noise / Every exhale softens something
TASTE
Tuesday and the soup from a packet / A coffee that is somehow exactly right
LEAF
Letting the wind choose where it finally lands / Each vein a map of summer running through it
NIGHT
Not quite dark when the curtains open / Insects against the window screen
LONGING
Leaning toward the door long since closed / Only memory opens it again
CLOCK
Counting every ordinary hour aloud / Loud in the silence after dinner
HAPPY
Here is where the lightness lives / A warmth that needs no reason
SMILE
Sudden warmth across an unknown face / Moving toward the one who is alone
RAIN
Rooftops humming a quiet song / And the streets begin to shine
BLISS
Barely a word for what the body knows / Light inside the chest that has no source
HAPPY
Here the days run slower and feel full / A laugh that rises past the tired face
PHOTO
Pulled out and looked at without warning / Holding a face you sometimes forget
GLEE
Getting lost inside the moment / Loose with joy and moving freely
LOVE
Light that follows even into shadow / Often showing up unasked and uninvited