Preseason warmup
or just trying to avoid
the holiday rush?
I don’t know, but my Christmas
Cactus has put out some blooms.
JDG
Fall Romance
Blue sky day before
leaves slowly turn and days grow
short and nights grow long,
a welcome respite from heat
and cold – Nature’s autumn kiss.
JDG
Self-policing
Denial and indifference stop us
in our moral
tracks, fail to
frisk for
lies.
JDG
Fall Break: The Drive Home
What I want to know,
but know better than to ask:
how she’s doing in her classes,
what she misses about home.
What she wants me to know
and what she shares: adventures
with friends, newly found opinions
on all topics great and small.
… Oh well…
even though it’s raining
we didn’t talk about the weather.
JDG
Finding A Way
I wear a bracelet
with the single word,
“pause”, engraved.
If only I could find
a way to engrave
that word somewhere
between my amygdala
and my mouth.
JDG
A Step Outside
A small thing – a step outside
to mail a letter-
interrupts a dark conversation
with myself.
Why do I listen to this inner jabber
when I could listen to
the whisper of wind in trees,
the lyrical trill of birds?
JDG
Free Fall
What can I bring to
this autumn season, this time
of unbecoming,
that will prepare the ground for
the fresh becomings of Spring?
JDG
Shrouded
Autumn morning mist
wraps us in a ghostly gauze
of grey – a haunting.
JDG
Soul Walk
Catching a glimpse of the soles of her feet
pulls at my heart, makes me think
of the path she has tred
and the path still ahead for this young
granddaughter of mine.
May her feet take her where she wants to go.
May she carry herself with grace.
May she walk wrapped in compassion.
May she know the satisfaction of accomplishment
and the solace of a path traveled well.
JDG
The More We Know
Although we can never know
the whole story –
ours or another’s –
the more we know,
the easier it sometimes is –
if only for a moment –
to move from harsh judgement
to compassion’s gentle flow.
JDG
aholdingplace 