January

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January waits like a new suit

Hung in the future of our closet

Its design seeded in our past

At a place that was too small

When we belonged to the moment

A moment that captured us and asked

What we loved and wanted to feel

Pictures and feelings floated

Inside our private spaces

They answered January’s taunt

Life is short and each of us

Is so limited in our ability

To translate the love we feel

That now we greet January

In every new year 

December

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December darkness
Family stirs bright
In shortening days
The night is dark
As clouds cast rain
And find us hiding
In places we know
But never forget
Till June pulls us
Outside ourselves
Cast into summer
Serving the world
With endless joy
Or scalded feelings
Over wet clay roots
Of life then death
Today then again
Feel the difference
  Of quietly taking
Or boldly living
In the present
That we wait for
  Or the present
We fold into

Presence

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There is a certain human beauty
In remembering riches from the past
There is a certain human beauty
In seeding promises to the future
There is also a human beauty
That regards neither of these two
  Always loving the now that moves
Quite hot and richly hollow at first
As children, animals, and friends
Greet our souls through their eyes

Growing

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Life fades fully
Real as a dream
We wide-eyed
Standing alone
Seeing the headlights
Of our own future
Approach without
Judgment or malice
Knowing our wishes
Marking our place
Soft pencil lines
On door frames
Caring belongs
To life itself
Not protecting
But helping us
To reach wiser
And richer ground
Than ever before

Lavender

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Lavender and mustard
Sweet sleeping fragrance
Slender on a breathing breast
Touching all the countryside
Morning’s sun-dried song
Joins an early bakery
Loving vineyards far beyond
Those gentle turns of cows
Everything dancing through
 The heart of its own beauty

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Now

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Now is an important instant

Not a journey into the future

Not a reflection into the past

Now's unknown is infinite

Till stepping stones appear

That lead away from here

It is no wonder we get confused

Living on the knife edge of now

Squeezed between past and future

Until present moments disappear

As surprises from the future

Seeking to orbit in our past

Flash through the present

Bright like shooting stars

To rest still as a mountain
In our timeless past