Now
Banana slug
Sometimes, kneeling before the yellow writhing of a banana slug sliming a window pane, I pray, hands pressing glass, watching
Now
Combs
Why give the comb teeth, that label, as if it’s a small fearful animal flashing it’s snarl and
Now
Heron
Take your glassy eyes away from whatever screen pierces them. Lift your weathered face out of whatever curiosity or burden
Now
Old conversation
So many years ago, a man we didn’t know well asked my husband, “Do you believe in God?”
The
Now
Little salamander
"Hello, Little Salamander.”
Heading out the garden room door, surprise, a dark-coppery sliver of movement, as my foot
Now
Agreements
What do we agreed to?
Last night a 2-year-old video clip in the news feed: a baby pulled
Now
Secret lily
Beneath the arms of a redwood, within it’s limbs hanging down, it is not the rain that finds me,
Now
Ruth Stone
Scanning a list of women poets this morning, I pause at Ruth Stone. I heard her read her work decades
Now
Birdy moment
In this house of wonderful tall windows, it can feel like living inside a snowglobe, only with cats and dust
Now
Invisible
Sometimes it seems I could be the only person on the planet. Stepping out on the deck past dusk, in
Now
Orb weavers
A week ago, a young man speaking of orb weavers in a deep ditch, hundreds of them, golden-yellow, their
Now
All the bears
Early morning, my husband half-waking out of sleep to tell me, “All the bears are dead.”
I’m a
Now
Birthday
Today I become the age that my mother was when she died.
Logically, I know it means nothing. We two,
Now
Despair
Despair is a kind of fire in the skin, that pink sheath stretched over the cheekbones, the red-rim at
Now
Invisible trail
Who are we when we write?
I’m in the last session of a brief writer’s workshop, a handful
Now
Pillow
My OwlMan, so depressed all day and almost no appetite at dinner.
Preparing the bed for him, I see the
Now
Endings
There is such weight in endings.
One year dissolves into another. Did I do enough in the year now gone?
Now
Wanting
Wanting. Is how we stay in this life. Wanting. Is the life force. Wanting, not out of lack, but fed