Gentle shuffling, tumbling,currents flowing, opening, closing, oozing, knowing, bubbles floating, soft insides trembling,hard shell shielding. Stomp, stomp.Crack the shell.No more fortress,all is not well! Pain inside flowing out,only the shell remains.The rest is finally freeto merge into grains. Carried then by waves onto the sand, hard still,but oh, so fragile;I lie in your gentle hand, waiting. © 2000 Joanne […]
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On the Art of Being Good Space
Ever wonder who that person was years ago who carried your name? We tend to think of who we were before major life changes as being like someone else, right? And yet, there’s a continuity as well. I am still that second-grade girl feeling the presence of Jesus in the stained-glass dome of St. Michael’s […]
Poetry Corner: Teddy
He lies now in her memory bin,chocolate and cream,sandwiched between herdaughter’s board books and herson’s lambswool comforter. Not as plush as in the picture,that hand-tinted photo of the two-year-old girlholding him, silky-new, not yet smelling of lost youth’s dust. She looked passively into the camera,just inks of black, white and grayuntil the tinter stroked her […]
Cooperation for the Long Haul
I remain amazed by a BBC documentory I saw several years ago on social structures in the South Pacific. All about the islands and atolls sprinkled across this area, along with the deep blue sea. This is what struck me as I watched an episode on human habitation across the islands: cooperation wins in the […]
Poetry Corner: Job, a Conversation with God
“The Lord has given,and the Lord has taken away;blessed be the name of the Lord.” Blessed? I’m not so sure.My faith feels shreddedby shards of painfrom the broken windowof my life.(And Job groans) “All the world’s a stage….”and I am the master player,tossing Jobs from stage to stage,castles to dung heaps every day.(And God smiles) […]
The Problem with Hope
I don’t believe in hope. Look up at the stars. Yeah, their light is often associated with hope. If things seem black, and you’re feeling lost, hope can often act as the light inside that keeps you away from the abyss of despair. I get that. But a lot of people use hope as a […]