trust

Trust

It's like so many other things in life
to which you must say no or yes.
So you take your car to the new mechanic.
Sometimes the best thing to do is trust.

The package left with the disreputable-looking
clerk, the check gulped by the night deposit,
the envelope passed by dozens of strangers—
all show up at their intended destinations.

The theft that could have happened doesn't.
Wind finally gets where it was going
through the snowy trees, and the river, even
when frozen, arrives at the right place.

And sometimes you sense how faithfully your life
is delivered, even though you can't read the address.

-- Thomas R. Smith

the wild swans at coole

The Wild Swans at Coole

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine and fifty swans.

The nineteenth Autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All’s changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold,
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake’s edge or pool
Delight men’s eyes, when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

--William Butler Yeats

(photo source)

gloss for impatient lovers

Gloss for Impatient Lovers

I like a leafing-out by increments—
not bolting bloom, in sudden heat begun.
Life’s sweetest savored in the present tense.
I like to watch the shadows pack their tents.
--Robyn Sarah, “Villanelle for a Cool April”

I like a leafing-out by increments—
the pregnant swell of aspen buds before
they each unclench their small brown fists and pour
green licks into the air, like monuments
to patience, like slowly opened doors.
I like a leafing out by increments,

not bolting bloom, in sudden heat begun.
I like to savor pleasure leisurely—
a hint of yes, a swoon of we-shall-see.
The truth of the imagination runs
on thirst. It thrives when there’s no guarantee,
no bolting bloom in sudden heat begun.

Life’s sweetest savored in the present tense.
The mind, it wants to sprint ahead, to know
what happens next. And next. It says, “Although
these buds look promising, intelligence
suggests it still could frost.” And that is so.
Life’s sweetest savored in the present tense.

I like to watch the shadows pack their tents
when love resists the guessing mind, decides
to trust what is. And bright as green inside
spring buds, love leafs out in slow increments.
I sip on warmth and let reluctance slide.
I like to watch the shadows pack their tents.

--Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

xxx
un abrazo fuerte and love to all.

a potted plant

A Potted Plant

I pull a sun from my coin purse each day.
And at night I let my pet the moon
Run freely into the sky meadow.
If I whistled,
She would turn her head and look at me.
If I then waved my arms,
She would come back wagging a marvelous tail
Of stars.
There are always a few men like me
In this world
Who are house-sitting for God.
We share His royal duties:
I water each day a favorite potted plant
Of His--
This earth.
Ask the Friend for love.
Ask Him again.
For I have learned that every heart will get
What it prays for
Most.

--Hafez

some fill with each good rain

Some fill with each good rain

There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that.
In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water,
That "love" is literally something of yourself,
It can grow as slow as a diamond
If it is lost.
Your love should never be offered to the mouth of a Stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.
There are different wells within us.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far, far too deep
For that.

--Hafez

xxx
happy birthday, rajah. i love and miss you to pieces.

but if you are happy...

But if you are happy...

When you whirl, your eye sees the room whirling, too.
If you sail in a ship over the sea,
it seems the seashore is running past.
If your heart is oppressed with struggle,
the whole atmosphere of the world feels tight;
but if you are happy as your friends would wish,
this world seems to be a garden of roses.

--Rumi
(translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski)

xxx
happy birthday, kathleen. i miss you.

keeping things whole

Keeping Things Whole

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body's been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

-- Mark Strand

xxx
i still love you, little blue house. you have good bones.

just now

Just Now

In the morning as the storm begins to blow away
the clear sky appears for a moment and it seems to me
that there has been something simpler than I could ever believe
simpler than I could have begun to find words for
not patient not even waiting no more hidden
than the air itself that became part of me for a while
with every breath and remained with me unnoticed
something that was here unnamed unknown in the days
and the nights not separate from them
not separate from them as they came and were gone
it must have been here neither early nor late then
by what name can I address it now holding out my thanks

--W.S. Merwin

two giant fat people

Two Giant Fat people

God
And I have become
Like two giant fat people
Living in a tiny boat.
We keep
Bumping into each other
and Laughing.

--Hafez