before asking
tomorrow’s blessing
I must bow my head
naming the blessings
already received

how heaven sits
all around and
patiently waits
discovery
this is chief
among the blessings
received

and how I can hear
your voice over and over
and still be aware of
loving you

how it is loving
not waiting that
causes love to be
born, borne
over and
over

stars
that do not look like
stars
fallen broken
rising falling
rolling bits of
dark surrounded
by the legends of
stars
we meet them
all along the
way

our struggle
to follow
only one
emboldens
delusion and
habit which
we must learn
to see from
the distance
of stars
that move as
one on the
way

it means nothing
going out high

tangled in light
and pulled by the dark
arms of a jasmine-
scented cocktail

brushing rust
from golden wings
in the end
all I want
is redemption

a word or
a mark
that takes me
makes me
over

winter wakeup call
cat stretching on the pillow
his nose in my ear

saint philomena
that winter
up at the farm
daydreams of saints
angels and archangels
lonely teenage girl
walking in
knee-deep snow

like a star
this advent amaryllis
leads me on

nest of lights woven
round and round and round for this
bird that is my heart

we think we
see the snowy field meet
the gray sky