Follows The Sun

You know how breakfast is the most important meal of the day?
I mean do you? Do you really know this?

My mother did not eat breakfast until she was in her sixties probably.
Even now she does so for health reasons, under duress.
Breakfast is a meal she does not care about, and so
if she must consume more fiber, she will do it then.
She calls her high fiber cereal “kibble.”

I used to hate breakfast.
(and may have idolized my mother).
I did not wake up hungry, and I did not want
to wake up early enough to get hungry.
Or early enough to eat, really.
Frankly, I did not want to wake up.

And then, I got older.
And I got a job. One that keeps me busy.
Like, really quite busy.
It requires a lot of care
and close attention.
I don’t know what it would be like
if I didn’t eat breakfast.
Most days I eat oatmeal, with nuts and syrup.
Once a week I eat a croissant.
Those days, I feel hollowed out
by eleven-thirty
and if my lunch is not too substantial
I can feel off, feel tired
all day.

I know that food is fuel
but it always seemed sort of,
over the long term –
now I need to feed my body
carefully, all through the day.

Which, it turns out, I rather enjoy.

this morning an infant
with the wildest of hair-dos
wrapped one tiny hand
around my thumb, one around my finger
like he was driving my hand
and looked at me
he doesn’t know what’s up, yet
in any sense of the words
he’s pretty cool

Rain. A long time spent snug at work.
Venturing out. Some slight success.
Home in the daylight to explore with my love.
Daffodils fading on my desk.
I am grateful.

There was plenty of light at six pm this evening
so much that it felt like six
in the afternoon

at quarter to eight it is fully dark
but there was an hour
or more
of day that felt like a gift

I have this sense, experienced in the shoulders
that the light will help me get back
the rest of my life

the life that is lived
in the light that is left
when the day spent at work
is done

The only way to learn how to perform
a reverse fold
when making origami figures
is properly perform one

the drawings don’t explain it
the teacher can show you it
but you will not know it
until you do it yourself

I think a lot of learning is like this
(making music come out of a cello,
or a violin, for instance,
or mastering a golf swing)
first you do it wrong

then you do it wrong
again and again

then you finally do it
right enough

and the real work
– revision –
can begin

a little too hot
for comfort
this soup
but not too hot
for love

***

Dang it!
not what I wanted at all.
HOWEVER
that left room for a last minute
triumph

3.21.16

this was a day
that did just about
what it needed to

3.22.16

all evening
I did not speak to anyone
except the dog, I guess
nobody spoke back, any way
nobody spoke to me at all
and I didn’t listen to anybody
except the dog, I guess
but not to anybody speaking
I didn’t listen to anybody speaking
at all
and

it was lovely

3.23.16

fine, rain in the morning when no rain was predicted
ok, break through patches of sun, and alright
be five degrees warmer than expected, maybe more
be surprisingly balmy, even

the buds are coming. this spring is mild.
last spring was not.
the climes, they are a changing.

One nice thing
is flying on a rainy day.
You get into a plane
and watch wet and clouds go by
your little portal window
then suddenly you
are past the clouds, and
into the sun.
It is always sunny
in the air.

—

In waiting for March’s first snow
and readying sleepward to go
Im all set to rest
and hope it suggests
that a calm mind shall find room to grow

3.16.16

Once in a book
I read about beads strung on a web
and they were a symbol
for life, maybe
or maybe literal lives
controlled by the person who held the web
I don’t know, or I don’t recall
but whenever I look down
from a plane at night
and see a city strung
along its roadways and glowing
brightest in the center
I think of it

3.17.16

Ice on a puddle
pansies and vegetables
we will be ok

3.18.16

To make a candle holder
that looks like a bottle
covered in wax candle drips
take an empty bottle, stick a candle
in its neck, and light it.
Burn it till it
is gone, and repeat,
using a different colored candle
if you prefer.

This is slow, but it is
the quickest way
and very authentic.

I shall sit
quite still
and quiet
for some time