Author: LFSAlden

Pause.
Breathe.
Consider.
Count the cost.
Reckon the gain.
Consider
Peace.

Armistice.

The sky lightens, and the earth spins,
and the good dogs run,
and the coffee makes noises,
and the sweet ones wander the house aimlessly.

Only breathing,
each breath deeper than the last,
with crackles of old stuck places unsticking.

Is the circling round of the year
to a sacred day
regardless of the ephemera.

This day’s call, irresistible.
My merry lass’s natal day!

I shall watch the sun rise and remember the story
while she sleeps, safe and sound, nearby.

One hour at a time, one thought at a time.
This is yesterday’s poem
because the entire day was taken up by watching
and dragging on.

and pulsing and aching and striving and turning and being present to others because that proves that I exist and waiting so patiently behind my mask which is covered with flowers and vines and fruit so that it is no mask at all.

Breathing, barely, but I know that that is “sunshine” and this is “soft dog” and somehow I still have hope because I have tried the alternative and I’m done with that nonsense.

and clean
and unstained by dishonor.

May it be so.

He was standing there waiting for me, revealed by moonlight,
and then all the others came,
the ghosts and the gods,
so I could give thanks
and refrain from making promises
and give more thanks.

Stag and Thunder;
Moon and Earth;
Wolf and Bear;
Owl and Coyote;
Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars;
Cygnus, Aquila, and Lyra;
Fire and Dance;
Mother and Father.

Now it is morning:
Moon and Earth still here,
Orion has his two good dogs and I have mine,
and we all have a Silmaril in the Eastern sky.
Oh, and the coyotes are still singing.

Finally we turn back.
Hearth and Home
and sleeping family.

All will be well,
And all will be well,
And all manner of things will be well.

~

That last stanza is, of course, written by Saint Julian of Norwich. Blessed Samhain and all the new year ahead to you and yours.

It’s white out there and I can only begin to express the little thrill, excitement, rush of joy!
Snow is one of the great healing balms.

Between islands full of trees and brush and beauty.
Through slightly warm water
Over beige sand.

That was it.
The whole dream.
Swimming, stopping to rest, swimming again,
and the sun never ceased to shine down.

follows me through this day –
a wonder and a mystery and a joy and a Spark.

Thank you, Lauren,

for the story of a small silver fox.

I read a thing yesterday
that made me sick at heart.

Time to put the armor back on.

The dog-snuffles
and daughter-footsteps,
and coffee-pot gurgles,
and soon it becomes a simple celebration of hats and kibble and walkies and teeth and baths and gentle chatter and user questions and eternal questions about milk.