June 29, 2016

I woke up this morning

expecting  to be flooded with 

news from Istanbul

stories of grief and loss of 

of mothers, of lovers, of babies, 

dead, dying, aching.

What are the colours of the Turkish flag? 

What colour is blood?

gkn June 2016

? ? ?

Summer Solstice, a favourite time, hope dreaming, 

a rare strawberry moon delight to join, 

some say a storm will follow, 

baby boy, heart connected, still born,

his brother says it means ( he wrote it in the book to show 

at school to save the words too hard to speak) he died

before he was born,  but he was still born,  and 

he was born still, 

big changes the astrologers said were coming,  

a shooting took 

lives awakened my fear, my rage, 

I see a casket the size of my foot lowered into the earth,  

tears flood,  so many bodies, 

rock my grandson,  and weep 

for the grandmothers, the 

mothers,  who will never rock wiggling bodies.

gkn June 2016

 

Exquisite

Mourning doves coo, 

smiles, on faces, 

four months

to

thirteen years 

and two months, 

melt me,

rivulets of tears 

stream

down wrinkling cheeks 

sunflowers bloom.

gkn June 2016

On reading a response to the tragic hate crime in Orlando Florida

Today I mourn. 

Some days I hope.

Some days I believe my 

grandchildren will know that 

who they call family,  who they love,

how they define themselves, is a gift. 

Is a gift.

Love of self, of others

is a gift.  Enhances the whole,

makes the world a better place. 

Some days I even hope that the cultural and spiritual 

home of my childhood recognizes and celebrates that 

too. 

Today, I mourn. 

gkn June 14, 2016

In the Leaving

with thanks to Jan Richardson 

In the leaving, in the letting go

let there be this, at last, 

to hold onto:

the remembering of infant joy, 

the persisting of childhood dreams, 

the enduring of youthful ambition, 

the offering of gratitude

     for birdsong, swimming pools shared, a nights sleep, 

     fresh baked scones,  toilets to clean, meals to make, dogwood's bloom, 

questions, enthusiastic chatter, a teen crawling into opened arms, baby cries, 

     interrupting writing.

      

the blessing of peace.

gkn June 3, 2016