give thanks & dance

Deep in the blankets of midnight

I can hear the Universe

As she calls me by my secret name

-----

My mother whipped me with a belt 

A serving ladle

A hairbrush 

A spatula   

And her fat heavy hands

Every blow was like being struck down by a god

Every blow held the taste of terror to me, a boy

When the whipping was through mother held me

Whispering “I didn’t want to do it - I didn’t want to”

Do you see how she loved me with scars? 

Fearing her taught me compassion   

I did not whip my own children

Not once

Not ever

-----

Five thousand empty mountains surround a valley crowned by the blue sky and cloaked in the green of the earth. It might be heaven. Our lives leave soft footprints on the damp morning ground, as gentle as hopping doves, and these footprints fade and disappear behind us as we walk, slowly crossing the valley. These lives are the notes of a song that causes the universe to flip up her long skirt and dance, and we join in. Give thanks, dance, and give thanks again. 

-----

The true person is one with the sky

Is one with the earth and the seas

And the self–   

Left far behind

James Lee Jobe

Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally

"I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes."

Carl Sandburg

-----

"What is done in love is done well."

Vincent van Gogh

-----

"Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry."

Charles Baudelaire

-----

"Just because people are unkind to you doesn't mean you have to be unkind back. That's how the world changes — one brave person like you being kind." 

Bryant McGill

-----

"I like Beethoven, especially the poems."

Ringo Starr

Please support this blog with a small donation. Using the 'Buy Me A Coffee' link below is both safe and fast.

Thanks, JLJ