Iniquity

California Mule Deer, Estuary, Nature photography, Camouflage
Photo by Elizabeth
I once showed a party of Sioux chiefs the sights of Washington, and endeavored to impress them with the wonderful achievements of civilization. 

After visiting the Capitol and other famous buildings, we passed through the Corcoran Art Gallery, where I tried to explain how the white man valued this or that painting as a work of genius and a masterpiece of art. 

“Ah!” exclaimed an old man, “such is the strange philosophy of the white man! He hews down the forest that has stood for centuries in its pride and grandeur, tears up the bosom of Mother Earth, and causes the silvery watercourses to waste and vanish away. He ruthlessly disfigures God's own pictures and monuments, and then daubs a flat surface with many colors, and praises his work as a masterpiece!”

       ~Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) 'The Soul of an Indian'


Release

ocean, clouds, Limantour beach, photo
photo by Elizabeth

In these past years, hurts, disappointments, confusion, resistance, loss, e.e. cummings‘ poem says it best:

let it go – the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise – let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go – the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers – you must let them go
they were born
to go

let all go – the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things – let all go
dear

so comes love

Obrigada

Red bell pepper, light, warm colors, photo
Photo & poem by Elizabeth

OBRIGADA

What if the first word we learned

in another language

was not toilet, how much,

or even where, but instead

thank you;

would we see past lines of experience,

the stumbling of innocence,

broken teeth, exquisite eyes,

to each person’s essence,

the miracle of existence,

and be grateful for a form

that could say gracias, dhanyavaad,

tak, xìe xìe, spasibo, danke, shokran?

Thank you to the editors of Marin Poetry Center Anthology VI for first publishing “Obrigada.”

MPC

Mirroring

Ocean shore, love, photo
Photo by Elizabeth
The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love - whether 
we call it friendship or family or romance - is the work of 
mirroring and magnifying each other's light. 
Gentle work. 
Steadfast work. 
Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, 
we are that person. 

                                               James Baldwin