How many times must I look back

and think, “What was

I thinking?” You’d

think by now I

would have learned the power of fore-

thinking, but it’s

in afterthought

that I excel.

When what’s been said can’t be unsaid

and what’s been done

can’t be undone,

then, I start thinking.

                                                                        JDG

When harsh winds tear through, when even

the sturdiest

trees uproot or

break, where do birds

go for refuge? Where do the squirrels

hide? How is it

when the storm has 

passed, they emerge

full of song and wild leaps while

I stay huddled

in the uncertain

shelter of my mind?

                                                                        JDG

Sometimes my mind flies all around

just looking for

a place to land.

It can only

spend a little time in spacious

air before it

tries to ground

itself in the

hefty weight of words. Sometimes though,

through practice or

through accident,

it slips words’ knots

and is set free.

                                                                 JDG

I helped myself to self-help books,

and most have gone

unread. Even

the lure of lasting

change in three easy steps or less

lost its appeal

before step two

when I realized

there was stuff I actually had

to do.  I  learned

I  much prefer

fantasy instead.

                                             JDG

I can’t say I’m ruminating

when I sit washed

in green, nor am

I talking to

another, present or unseen.

I simply sit,

wordless, watching

as sunlight ebbs

and flows among the trees, fashioning

a gentle wave

that takes me to

a distant shore.

                                                       JDG

Today as I sit in my small house,

I remember

you who once seemed

so large. Widowed

at thirty, you chose to raise, as

 best you could, the

three of us on

dogs, daffodils,

and democrats, thus leaving us

a legacy

of loyalty,

beauty, equity.

                                                  JDG