“I wonder what she’s gone and done?”
the older sister
said, noting an
unusual
burst of helpfulness on the part
of the younger
one. “Why?” I asked
and she replied,
“It’s an age-old kids’ technique
to soften you
up for the bad
news soon to come.”
JDG
Category Archives: poetry form-more than a minute
Birds’ Aye View
They flew in, these birds of varied
hues, and gathered
in the holly
tree to eat their
fill. Undisturbed by passers-by
or hangers-on,
they simply sat
and fed. They saw
no need to eat only with their
kind, nor to hoard
or stash. Their ayes were
bigger than that.
JDG
At Seventy
Like May Sarton, at seventy
I can say,”Now
I become myself,”
but becoming
myself has not been something I
have done alone.
Friends and family,
and even those
who have not meant me well, all have
helped shape the me
I have become.
Sometimes that me
seems a thing of beauty; other
times a mismatched
assembly of
ill-chosen strands.
I give thanks for all who love the
whole cloth of me
and help me love
what I’ve become.
JDG
Simple Strands
Watching one woman reach out to
help another,
I thought of how
friendship’s cloth is
woven out of such simple strands
as seeing and
being seen. In
times of pain, in
times of joy, in times of mundane
dailiness, strands
of seeing make
enduring cloth.
JDG
A Sabbath Moment
Amidst the steady fall of leaves,
a small squirrel
hurries by, holding
a gum ball in
his teeth. High flying crows streak past,
intent on a
focus all their
own. Then, from my
vantage point, no leaves fall, no crows
or squirrels rush by :
a Sabbath moment,
a sacred pause.
JDG
To Leap Or Not to Leap
Today I made a little leap
backward toward
the moment when
I always leap
forward instead. Circling back
in this kind of
u-turn gives me
the chance I need
to pause and reflect if I want
to move forward
at all. Next time
I’ll try to look
before I leap.
JDG
Pausing To Clear The Stage
I want to pause when what’s become
second nature
takes center stage,
turning rejected
moments into high drama with
second nature
in the starring
role. I want to
make room for my original
nature to make
its come-back, long
awaited and
much hoped for.
JDG
A Slow Settling Begins
A deep red blanket, pulled across
the evening sky,
brings warm comfort
to the close of
day as the crescent moon looks on,
ready to take
its rightful place
in night’s darkening
sky. A slow settling begins
as tuckered out
creatures sigh and
start to snuggle in.
JDG
aholdingplace 