Category Archives: Poetry

Here might be our highest value

When our eyes meet—
When our ears meet—
Passes between us humanity
& here might be our highest value

:- Doug.

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Puddles

One water
Many puddles

:- Doug.

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Find happiness

When we live beyond ourselves
our little crises, worries and troubles
& weave our humanity
into others’ lives
we find happiness

:- Doug.

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Direct your days a little less

Direct your days a little less
Discover the more that’s here for you

:- Doug.

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Will we be enough?

We are whole
as we sit here
Will we be enough?
This we test
if we but up and
throw ourselves in

:- Doug.

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O Sandy Hook

O Sandy Hook
I am on the rim
of an endless sea of tears!
each time I recall your twenty
young beautiful lively
children lying in their own blood
laughter & learning & ricochets
mingled now, echoing away
Mourn, America!
Silence! Keep silence.
Allow your tears.
Only sob.
Our children our children
are dead

:- Doug.

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The higher heart

The higher heart
in this person
seek out
speak here

:- Doug.

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Home is the place

Home is the place where especially we the broken can be accepted as whole and as the best the world owns.

home
is
whole-making
is
home

:- Doug.

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We cannot plan for the future

We cannot plan for the future
—Unknowable as it is—
We can notice its aroma
Scan into the morning mist
Dress for the weather

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Family, Long-Term Care, Poetry | Leave a comment

The gift of one another

Open hand
The gift of one another
Open heart
The gift of one another
Lean into our circle
As human as you can
Offer and accept our highest
The gift of one another

:- Doug.

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Will me a secret

Will me a secret
Playful one
Will me a piece of junk
That I have the fun
Of figuring why you’d
Will me that
Secret

:- Doug.

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When it comes my time to die….

It’s seldom a question of knowing when to say when, but of working it out. When I write a poem there are a hundred right ways to say what needs to be said. My primary urge is to express the thing new to me. Then I want to say it well—so you will want to pay attention—and then so you will carry it further. Because of these hundred right ways there  is no perfect wording, so I have to choose to say when the end has come, when to let it go on its way. When it comes my time to die, perhaps it will be like this.

A word too far in a poem
Can undo the life it brings

:- Doug.

Posted in Conversation, Death and dying, Poetry | Leave a comment

If I am to die well

If I am to die well
I need you to place
my story in yours
If I am to die well
I need you to love me

:- Doug.

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Alzheimer’s: modern Magellans?

“Right up to the last minute,”
Joelle said to me
“the soul has work to do”
Weeks later her words
lead me to ask
What if it were
more opening than disease
this Alzheimer’s
& these our tribe’s explorers?
What might they discover
learn & teach
these modern Magellans
freed of memory?
What is learning
if released from memories?
What is life?
Traveling unencumbered
by memory
how might they move?
Where go?
Maybe it’s we who
hold them back
with talk of yesterday
and this morning
and 5 minutes ago
& we their Sherpas
carrying their food
bedding & tent
while they attend
their ascents

:- Doug.

Posted in Aging, Caring, Eldering, Family, Healing and Wholeness, Long-Term Care, Poetry | Leave a comment

The redbuds and the pears

The redbuds and the pears
The cherries and the apples
Start the spring with shouts
In the shape of flowers
Riotous flowers
The maples put forth
Seeds on the wing
The pin oaks get right
Down to business
New leaves pushing off old
Tulip trees bloom later
And Mulberries give
Sweet fruits to the birds
There are so many ways to live!
To write first chapters and last!
And no chapter is ever last
And everything cycles
And everything is moving
And everything is moving

:- Doug.

Posted in Death and dying, Eldering, Grieving, Poetry | Leave a comment

Will us eyes

Will us eyes
eyes you have loved
ones with crinkles in the corner
ones which pull on dimples
ones with tears
and ones which
see into your deeps

:- Doug.

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Bequeath someon a dream

Bequeath someone a dream
better yet, devise it
for it is real

:- Doug.

Posted in Dreams, Poetry, Wills | Leave a comment