Nest

The city where I have lived all my life
has been shaken to rubble.
From behind a broken edifice, an old man with only one eye calls to me.
His voice is like the ragged peace of an old love, he speaks-
"When nothing is certain,
everything is possible".

The towers that have stood above me for as long as I have lived
are broken at my feet,
I must climb over and around
the massive pieces of fallen concrete,
splintered wood, and broken glass;
a clumsy collage of chaos.

And in the nine months since the earth
shook my city to the ground,
life has continued it’s rhythmic chant
of grow, grow, grow.

Vines have stretched their arms and climbed up the sleeping wreckage of history,
adorning the cracked village with green, flowering life.

Grow, grow, grow.

Above my head, a little bird is weaving its nest in an old window pane.
Meticulously, she twists bits and pieces of what has fallen
into a delicate bed.

I am like her,
keeping pieces of what has broken,
and building my new life-
beautiful, intricate, strong.

junkyard

I am searching through the junkyard of my life
salvaging pieces of colorful glass and beautiful
dirty things and useful wasted things in order to
begin
something new;

to reawaken the sleeping hoper,
to raise as from the dead
the girl within me who wanted only to hold
All the world in her arms in safety;

Child within me you are safe again
I Am stronger now, I can face the Past
and lift my face to the stars and believe
in the goodness, and trust in the kindness and
be

Open hearted-

wounded places still tender but happy to be useful again;
Oh WORLD of possibilities
hold me near your ancient truth!

song of the rain

I want to see it rolling off the tips
of everything,
pulling your hair earthward.

Crowds scurry for shelter,
but I love the ones who make their peace with it.
Who allow me to bless them,
sprinkling seas and rivers of the world
over their sweet faces.

And in the hot stretches of July days,
I long for children who crouch
and dip two hands in cold
puddles;

And for the smell of the earth
when rain bends leaves
and feeds the soil to its deepest root.

I bring all that is green and fat,
all that is clean and pure.
When I come in a rush,
let me baptize you.