...quiet, about a lot of things...

At 6:30 AM my daughter rushed into my room, where I was lying in that vulnerable space between dream and real..and yelled she had broken the right rear view mirror of her car. She in a newly licensed driver and was nearly hysterical. I told her not to worry, and reassured her that it was indeed a tricky angle out of our garage. I sent her on her way.

As I drove my youngest to school, twenty minutes later, I noticed the broken mirror glass swept to the side of my driveway. Five minutes later, I came really close, leaving rubber close, to an accident myself. A fender bender caused by two car loads of teenage boys. I thanked God that I had been driving this time, and not my daughter.

The day was not looking good.

And it just got worse. Poetry Thursday is calling it quits. Liz and Dana have taken this fine venture from seed to sprawling thicket..and I am guessing they need to prune a bit..so they can find the doors back to their own lives. I am happy to clear the way for them. They deserve a soft landing and an easy exit. I will miss this project so much....I can't tell you.

So thank you Dana and Liz.This doesn't seem sufficient. I need to tell you that because of you, I am writing poetry again. Because of you I am, just this very evening, starting to participate in a "REAL HUMAN" poetry workshop...actual people with eyes and ears and faces..not just words and thoughts and air. I am not sure that they will have the nurturing rules that you girls did. It may be brutal. It might be intimidating. I know it will not feel as safe as this whorl of the time space continuum has. It may be sharp and thorny.

I know I will feel hot. I know I will blush and stutter. I know I will want to cry. I will have to push myself out of my car.

You see, this is the real me...the QUIET me. The one you would never notice.

But it's time, girls, for all of us. It's time to leave the nest and leap. Notice I did not say fly...because when you first try...you fall..plunge really into the unknown. You go on faith and an indescribable quest to grow and find more and love more and write more.

Dear Dana and Liz, you did this for me. I will forever remember you and thank you profoundly, whenever I learn to fly.



Last Song

At the start
you must
acknowledge
the finish

though the ground
between here
and there seems
vast, and
easily conquered.

You must look
the end in
it's eye.

Be respectful.

Choose to be led,
not chased
towards it.

Pray that
in you greatest
moment of joy
you will
turn around

simply
to find a
soft hand
closing

and a small
breath slowly
stilled.

merely
an instant
shorter
than you
had planned.

wlf


I'm going to bring my flowers of thanks over to Poetry Thursday....

Labels: Poetry Thursday