• how we are forced into silence by the crimes of our state*January 31, 2026

  here is what we are learning—how to feel
  from the other side,
  that there is feeling on the other side
  
  that we are the ones our parents condemned
  all our lives
  that we are the ones we have condemned
  all of our lives
  
  monstrous—we are beginning
  to understand, we seem monstrous
  but from in here we feel
  terrified, lost, hurting, furious, righteously
  
  vengeful, forced by our enemies
  to defend ourselves forcefully, innocent,
  blameless, way too busy to be bothered,
  to take the time to see
  
  what we are becoming
                                                  2/3/2005
         *After reading Adrienne Rich, The School Among the Ruins,
           Poems 2000-2004

• Wrestling the Angel of ReposeDecember 12, 2025

  1
  To build a pyramid which is simply
  a very large pile of rocks
  you must understand
  the angle of repose
  where any of us myriad beings
  most easily come
  
  to reclining rest, without falling
  painfully broken to pieces
  with great thundering, crashing
  crushings.
  
  2
  I’ve always struggled for balance
  but only now in my 82nd year
  do I understand how all along
  the winding way of this
  delicious hurtful life
  I’ve been in one constant
  wrestling match with yet
  another Angel.   Yes!
  
  Adjusting as I fly out—
  Here:  such sudden sharp
  excruciating angles!
  There: to follow this next
  sudden impulse or that brief
  certainty.
  
  All I’ve ever noticed
  before this moment
  are the grains of scattered
  sand brushed off Your flowing
  golden robes.  If only
  I could see You! 
  
  3
  Yet every night, I lay
  my body down in bed,
  pull the blankets over me,
  sighing happily in the delight
  of letting go this day
  I’ve gripped so hard it hurts,
  never before understanding
  
  it’s into the arms of the Angel
  of Repose I gratefully recline
  to be cherished, comforted
  and renewed.
                          11/11/25
  
  

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