Category: poetry

Ironic Beauty

When you consider the moss and the clay, it seems wildly unreasonable that we don’t give it space in the prestigious category “beauty.” God made flowers and stars and lightning bugs, sure, but He also crafted the things less immediately radiant: the soil, the stones, the molding bark on trees. Without vibrant colors or sweet aromas, these things yield a beauty beyond senses: purpose. How beautiful it is to have purpose; has anything else ever been so tirelessly pursued?

Go ahead, give her a bouquet of molding tree bark; weed out the narrow thinkers 😉

 

(What else is beautiful because of its purpose or potential that we don’t traditionally honor with the title beauty?)

Firestone Friday: Poem XXI

A powerful freedom

exists in knowing

that your identity,

your unchanging essence,

and your inextricable value,

do not rest

in production,

so whether you produce

triumphs or failures

or nothing at all,

you remain

as richly radiant

as you always have.

Shame

Shame

is a burden

so heavy,

you cannot

move forward

while you carry it;

it’s hard enough

to walk

when you’re

confident

in your steps —

how can we

expect to

move at all

while we look

backward?

 

(How do you overcome times of shame?)

Firestone Friday: Poem XX

I cherish

your

grey hair

and

all of your

signs of living,

because they

reveal

moments, days, years,

that you

have grown

into your own

essence,

all the time

becoming

the most

radiant

thing

I’ve ever

known.