“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.”
Healing
Category: Link
Swayed
When an 85 lb. mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it’s hard to feel sad.
Stare
The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention. Flannery O'Connor
Beneath It All
BENEATH IT ALL
Love’s a hitchhiker,
so innocent in its leap
that it doesn’t register
torn seats or sunroofs
but simply hears
Come on in
and feels that smile
like a warm winter breeze,
but relationships
are rarely so simple:
the car must be washed
repaired, replaced
and trips planned
and changed with the
frequency of newborns’
diapers amidst increasing
conflict till compromise
shatters
like a windshield at eighty
against the centennial oak
but love, love’s not so
complicated—once stripped
of metal and fuel it
shimmers naked, senses
open to sky and skunk,
blizzards and vistas,
and is never
blind but radiant as a star
and enigmatic as a body
after the heart’s
final
beat.
Thank you to the editors of The Tishman Review for first publishing this poem.
Vision
Is there a more mysterious idea for the artist than to imagine the way nature is reflected in an animal’s eye. How does a horse see the world? Or an eagle? Or a deer or a dog? What a miserable convention that leads us to place animals in a landscape that pertains to our eyes rather than plunging ourselves into the animal’s soul in an attempt to understand his vision of things.
BLM V
THE TIME IS ALWAYS RIGHT TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT.
BLM IV
Michelle Cusseaux Botham Jean Sean Monterrosa
Natasha McKenna Walter Scott Sandra Bland
WE MUST ACCEPT FINITE DISAPPOINTMENT BUT WE MUST NEVER LOSE OUR INFINITE HOPE. MLK
BLM III
Tarika Wilson Daniel Prude Andy Lopez
Pamela Turner Alton Sterling Ahmaud Arbery
INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE. MLK
BLM II
Breonna Taylor Atatiana Jefferson Michael Brown
DARKNESS CANNOT DRIVE OUT DARKNESS, ONLY LIGHT CAN DO THAT. HATE CANNOT DRIVE OUT HATE, ONLY LOVE CAN DO THAT. MLK
BLM I
Elijah McClain Akai Gurley Philando Castile
WE SHALL OVERCOME BECAUSE THE ARC OF THE MORAL UNIVERSE IS LONG, BUT IT BENDS TOWARD JUSTICE. MLK
Elizabeth Oakley Weaver 