Growing a Garden

Rukhiya emailed me this peace today. It speaks to me of grace, the grace of a woman...and integrity and self worth. Many of these walk my mind nowadays. Between waiting and seeking for answers, I have but one usurper of norms, one disturber of peace ~ hope. It barges into my world like the Tasmanian devil, displacing everything. Poking at little tucked in dreams, growing red wings for large chained ones. Hope I must lose and then I may finally - rest in peace.






'After awhile you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't mean security.
And you begin to understand that kisses aren't contracts
And presents aren't promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head held high and your eyes wide open.
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
You learn to build your roads
On today because tomorrow's ground
Is too uncertain for plans, and futures have
A way of falling down in midflight.
After awhile you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate
Your own soul, instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure,
That you really are strong.
And you really do have worth.
And you learn and learn...and you learn
With every goodbye you learn'




~ Veronica A. Shoffstall

Let me be a Bird

Suddenly very grateful to life for the privilege of being able to have fine teas, listening to BBC radio (Honest Doubt). Sitting outside my own body on the road, hypothetically selling hair clips, I am watching myself through chinks of the draped window.... And am envious.


Let me be a Bird


Many gardens, we love like needy lovers
Entering
to pluck fruit
drink off a stream
snip long-stemmed roses.


Some gardens, we nourish like mothers
Bringing
water in urns
to parched grasses
planting pale purple irises.


Rarely, we watch over like birds
Picking
dead leaves
to build houses
Twit at strangers
Guarding the fruit
Kissing flowers - giving and taking.


I choose to be a bird,
Small, swift, full of song
Pollinating
Tilling the soil
Sewing long leaves to live in.


June 22nd, 2012.