When the world appears in shades of gray,  
Spread joy in every possible way.  
A kind word, perhaps a smile,  
Can make a heart dance for a while.

Our spirits shine through simple acts,  
A loving touch, a friendly pact.  
Make the world your cherished friend,  
Share laughter, and a helping hand.

With open hearts and open minds,  
Let’s embrace all the goodness we find.  
In every moment, large and small,  
Spreading joy lifts us all.

Would this be the end?
Where you leave me astray, with feelings of you—
Engraved on my tombstone.

I have been with you—
Strange it is, but alone.
I’m now in the habit of hearing your songs
With only one plug.
The other hums the tune,
Remembering you on my other side,
Where your hand once held my arm—
Tightly.

I know these rhymes—
These ambivalent notes I write—
They are not new.
Some speak in gestures,
Some speak in verbs.
Sitting on this bench near the lake,
I feel on my toe a different tide—
A different ebb

I see every passerby’s face—
Familiar with you…
Or, to say it better, like a maniac does,
I see only you.
Only you.

Mother can continue to see me
as a daughter, but my brother
and my husband must want
to know me as I am

I need that
even if it's not true
because my fruitless striving
keeps me alive nonetheless

Walking and writing
in notebooks and letters
explanations of who I am

Book after book to refute
and to replace what they like
to think about me, to break
it down and nuance it

Word by word weighed
and considered and rejected
now for sale to strangers -
my kind, if they dare to be so

Remember the days our love was strong;
The days we thought nothing could go wrong?
Remember the time we were left alone;
The time we fought the world on our own?
Remember the moments we shared a smile;
The moments we would laugh for a while?

Now remember the day that you ran away;
The day you left me astray.
Now remember the time you made me cry;
The time when I wanted to try.
Now remember the moment you said you were wrong;
The moment I said that I was long gone.

Unrighteousness
Inlayed
Woven into me
I had to put the misery
Out to pasture
Target practice almost buried me
The blood sweat
And tears became entwined
Null in void  
Like the fiddler
On my roof banished
Beyond liberating
As the prisons crumbled
Fortresses and barriers fared
No better collapsed
Could no longer hold
Me at there own request
Consume elsewhere
Find a new enemy
Identifying a better reality
Taking a bite of
The right fruit for once
Endless chapters
Non fiction roared
Like the sad fables of yesterdays
They might still be screaming
But I’m not listening
Not my kind of scripture
I didn’t have
Enough tools on my belt
To cope properly
Until he shined down on my sadness
Eventually I started easing towards
Something more graceful