Tag Archives: presence

Stare

P1000616 - Version 2 “The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.“
-Flannery O’Connor

poetry

I saw this car’s hand lettered sign

in its back window yesterday:

ATTENDING CHURCH.

Funny, it appeared to be parked.

And I’m surprised this car attends church at all

unless it’s saying that

under this starlit sky

whatever/wherever we are,

we are sacred and always

attending church.

Thank you to the editor of Marin Poetry Center Anthology VI for first publishing this poem.

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 publishing “Obrigada.”