I can't sleep…
Sometimes he thinks of her, of them. Of what could have been.
Sometimes it’s all he thinks about…
He can feel the weight of their lives in a single step forward.
And he is enchanted by the beauty of small things:
hot coffee,
wind through an open window,
the tapping of rain,
a passing bicycle…
— Simon Van Booy, Everything Beautiful Began After
Notes: Quote via see more. Photo: Milka Awgul
and the way the smallest animals breathe
burrowed into the hills.
(her) ribs
expand a little,
her soft lungs fill
partially, she feels the world
come in softly
as she inhales a breeze.
~ Amanda Beth Peery, from “A Poem About Breathing”
Notes: Poem via 3 Quarks Daily. Photo: Lydia Trappenberg with Breathe
We’re so driven to make ourselves “better” all the time…
We are mercilessly hard on ourselves for our losses, our defeats, our wounds, our failures, the parts of us that don’t measure up.
This is a weekend in non-self-improvement….
~ Francis Weller, in an interview with Tim McKee titled The Geography Of Sorrow. Francis Weller On Navigating Our Losses
Photo: Nap time by Aku*S
At night, crickets sawed outside the windows of my childhood bedroom, and I read sixteen years of old journals, turning their pages into the early morning hours, as if I did not know what would happen next. There I was, same as ever, a linked paper chain of self-replication, continuously through time, the very same shorthand for a simple, happy life: muffin tins, cross-country skis, a desk by an open window. When had I made everything so complicated?
~ Sarah McColl, “Joy Enough: A Memoir.” (January, 2019)
Photo: Dan Smith
For the sake of cleansing seconds
stare at something still.
Free from feeling filled
hum the sound of the sun descending
sitting in its final ribbons.
Watch what leaves shake
in the unseen breeze.
Feel your own fingers.
Let time be soil for time.
Let hunger set in
~ Sean Kearny, “Be Bored” from Press 1 (Fall 2014)
Notes: Poem from 3quarksdaily.com. Photo credit to JP Benante