that's mrs. mediocrity to you

and let the rain wash down
to the valley of drown

in an avalanche of
forgiveness

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 30
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Whew. I did it. Thanks so much to all of you who followed along.
It means a great deal to me.
Today is also Poem in your Pocket Day (more about that here).

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of course she had no regrets
she’d wear that red dress again
if she could find it

rubbing ankles in the dark
and smiling smugly at the waiter
with his tray of sweets for the sweet
thinking he knew
the definition
of divine

and the whispers she couldn’t quite catch
shuffling by from two tables over

grief and apology
perhaps
or something smaller

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 27
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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somewhere in a garden in spain
your long lost great-great-grandmother
buried a key on a gold-plated chain

no one knows this but you
and the ghost she still sends
to tease your serpentine dreams
with the scent of yesterday’s roses

one day
as you walk to your car in a hurry somewhere
you’ll notice the nod of a purple veiled flower
and catch a barely-there whisper

spoken
in a language you can’t understand

and that’s when you’ll begin
to listen

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 25
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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i remember the day you died or
to be more accurate, chose to leave,
or to be more accurate still, i remember
when i found out what you’d done

i wasn’t there
but i’ve never stopped seeing
the violence of your last moment
and the lifetime left
wondering
what more we could have done

the first time i understood
that life is precious
was also the first time
i understood
the hole that grows with living

one shovelful each day
until we’ve formed the mountain
we must climb
to jump back in

and i wonder if
on the way down
we think of
flying

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 24
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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i want to tell you a secret:
silence is a charlatan and answers are for birds

the sparrow scrapes through a litter of leaves
looking for worm or the snail that will save him

today

but he keeps one eye on the sky for a martyrdom of hawk
and his beak has begun to grow crooked

he knows the dangers of complacency
life or death, work or hunger
boredom is never an option
fight or flight remains a literal refrain

the sky is a cage of infinity
posing as the song of room to soar

the sparrow knows the gravity
of thinking

he’s a miracle in the melt of mirage

he sings so the morning won’t be lonely

he lives to defy his mother’s odds

he sings

he sings

he sings

to tell the nature
of his story

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 22
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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i am bent but never broken

hollow but never empty

spent but never lacking

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my song is a march

and my step is a rhyme

my heart is a lark

and my hands are sublime

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pain curls inside my pocket

a worry stone of wait

busy fingers

burnished hope

polished imperfection

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i am magic without chant

gypsy without wandering

woman without definition

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i am bent but never broken

hollow but never empty

spent but never lacking

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 21
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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we both wear time on our face, proud of place
and days spent wandering
through little more than transparent
pages

nothing is smooth these days, sandpaper tongue
and hollowed out heel,
creaking bones in a cold-frame

of continuous growth

and gathered

seed

brittle remnants poking out from all
the wrong places and the crinkle crackle
of your presence

keeps me rooted in this place
of tender spring and brutal winter
as together we weather

broken shovel

and harvested

need

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 20
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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sip sunshine on sundays and wednesdays

marry the sky twice every morning

root for misty maudlin rain

while kissing thunder behind brooding cumulus

dance only with cobalt blue butterflies

(they will always complement your dress)

allow the wind to be your daily stylist

stand tall in the presence of cold shoulders

practice the art of being dormant

scream with joy when the sun promises to hold you

become best friends with everyone named green

(they will all attend your wedding)

sell all your white dreams and buried memories

whisper grace to the stars that burn your name

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 19
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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this is the way
we learn to love

inhale
exhale

embrace
release

compassion
indifference

respect
disdain

exhale
inhale

we learn to love
this is the way

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 18
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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i am lost in the corner of distance
covered and the sun
keeps melting my ennui

this is the room we’ve buried, filled
with leftover promise

as you can see, i’ve kept every one
in a box lined with amethyst motion

i want a cloud soft as cotton and you
want to trust my dissent

or feather my decline
depending on the shape of stone i carry

but i leave the jewels you just cut
in the doorway of sanity’s sharpness
as i search alone for the smooth shiny bits

of drought’s unquenchable key

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..

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 17
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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