Introduction:  I want to start this introduction with the words that close this compilation out; Caleb Burke’s final stanza of his beautiful poem captures what this compilation reveals:  The more I look the more I find that it is not I that has found Love, but Love that has found me.  This compilation was organized […]

An independent clause  Dependent on the effect  From an uncommon cause    Met with  A comma And    a pause    Besides  Another independent clause    A comma splice  Accommodating  And  Overcompensating  For one’s need to stand  On their own  Constantly seeking to  run on    Run off    Run from The uncommon cause    […]

The body is          Your home  Built from the           House of your Mother’s own  You were  Woven  And  Brought out into the open  Arriving  Fully whole  And  Wholly just beginning  The process  Of  Evolving  The body is           Your safe space  Built for the    […]

“Reasons to Live Through the Pain”  The moon. Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. Sleeping beneath the stars. Dancing with loved ones. Dancing with strangers. Music uniting a room. A dog welcoming you home. Hearing birds as an alarm clock. Steam rising from a cup of coffee. A slow Saturday morning. A rainy day to read […]

Inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem “Evidence”  Excerpt of Mary Oliver’s poem:  “I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed. As for the body, it is solid and strong and curious and full of detail; it wants to polish itself; it wants to love another body; it […]

  “Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not to go into. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing […]

“Hope” is the untouchable – that touches us  That dwells deep within-  And stakes a tent-  And opens wide for our soul          To sit within                    Safe and at ease                                    To be  And, around that tent – is an open space  And people gathering – freely – and  In such a way where hands are held  […]

I am safely suspended  between the tensions of  grief and gratitude— Standing upon A bridge               Built  To hold  The reality  Of  being human.  I am vulnerably stable                    As I stand  Wondering  About And  Wandering  To The medal planks  Laid […]

The fall  Of  Humanity  Falling quickly Into  Friction Of one’s own frailty         Fraught         with         Anxious energy                   Fixed upon                   Fragmented Fear  A fierce fragility  Fractured into the frame With a force of pain  Alongside an unexplainable  Peace— A paradoxical relief.  The fall  The breaking  The broken  The beautiful  All in this place  All holding space  All […]

Relapsed  Into  A reality  Not yet known  And  Not yet seen    Fatigued with familiarity  Rendered  Into  Dependency  Upon  Community  And the  Daily bread  Set out before me    Led to           A deep           Awareness          Of my limits           And    […]