Poetry —————— Chalk (2026) ------------ like sticks of bright chalk ground hard against the sidewalk we dance 'til we drop Provenance (2026) ----------------- Thou who first made me, How didst thou shape me? With what hands didst thou slake the Need that begat me? Whence was I drawn? What void have I filled? Whence have I gone? Whose love have I still? Thou whose poems always rhyme, I sense thy restless soul in mine; Why else would I, of mortal means, Seek comfort in infinities? Aging Gracefully (2025) ----------------------- I intend to age gracefully. I want to savor the slow degradation. I want to marvel at my wrinkles and liver spots. I want to smile and shake my head when I can't remember. I want to become a relic. I want to sample the entire palette. I want to radiate a tender wistfulness. I want the things I value to be stripped away, one by one. I want hearing aids and reading glasses and a cane. I want my world to shrink to a single room. I want injuries that never quite heal. I want my advice to go unheeded. I want to regret. I want to try to age gracefully, and fail. I want to try to fail gracefully, and fail. I want to feel prepared, and discover that I was not. And in the end, I want god to break me on the wheel— incapable, as I am, of surrendering through will alone. Winter (2024) ————————————— Pale blue eyes with thin wrinkled lids; brittle old bones with the truth etched in; a long sigh's heat, which Winter has stolen— or reclaimed. How strange: The thickness has gone out of everything— even the air. Pale blue eyes, you need not strain. How strange: The stars are near enough to touch. This Ugly Moment (2024) ——————————————————————— He let me watch, once: His fingers dancing with light, weaving me into His tapestry. I saw then what I am living now: I watched this ugly moment break like sunrise beneath His steady hand and I shuddered. Someone had to experience it. That someone was me. I lived it. I suffered it. He wrote this chapter into my story, knowing I would endure. He allowed me to share in his sacrifice: Because I bore this cross, another did not. I spared them. I saved them. That rough cross was a priceless gift. A moment can occur but once, and to but one soul. Now, that ugly moment is finished. It has passed away for ever. I will heal. Already I am healing. And while I heal, I am sheltered by another: A nameless angel who bears a cross that, by all rights, should be mine. The ugliness of this world is a canvas we paint with love. The ugliness of this world is perfection we cannot see. The ugliness of this world shines as terrible and beautiful as the sun. Yes, I suffered. And for you, stranger, I would do it again. Amor Fati (2023) ———————————————— Remember, friend, amor fati: All is as it ought to be. In beauty and in reverie, All is as it ought to be. In discord and in harmony, All is as it ought to be. Graceful as an aging tree, All is as it ought to be. Remember, friend, amor fati: All is as it ought to be. Dishes (2020) ------------- there are people walking around who were enlightened in an instant. nothing changed, of course. they kept scrubbing the dishes, grumbling. nobody noticed. Beatitude (2016) ———————————————— Blessed are those who know they are blessed; blessed are those who do not. Blessed are those who have awoken; blessed are those who still sleep. What do we gain by waking? Only an appreciation for our dream, and a suspicion that it has not yet ended; a dream within a dream, a play within a play. Do not despair at this glimpse of infinity. Embrace the sliver you have been accorded. Blessed are those who are content to dream; blessed are those who are not.