To Do

Put away the books
Lying scattered across the floor
The table
The bed
Spilling across surfaces like toppled ink
A labyrinth of poetry and prose
Keeping me trapped in verbose clutter

-gws

I Want to Be THAT Kind of Woman

I love watching the women with fire in their veins
The girls with Punky Brewster profiles
They enter with energy so big the room feels small
Laughs that ring out above the rest - distinctive and full bellied
They refuse to be shamed by the PTA moms
Not allowing their messy edges to take away from their contributions
They embody the revolutionary girl that Nikita Gill wrote rules for
Standing up for themselves and others
Accepting no excuses for bad behavior
They are often truth tellers slicing through mass delusions
Magic makers manifesting dreams into reality
Only ever competing with themselves
Chin high and eyes sharp
They are goddess and girl
Witch and woman
Scorching or blessing the ground they walk
In equal measure
Giving no fucks and taking no shit
As they say "yes, and" or "hell, no"
Fierce and joyous and unapologetically free

-gws

Observations of a Meteorologist in Love

Thunder rattles behind her ribs
Lightening arcs from her tongue
She is storm clouds
Bringing steady rain to parched earth
Raging winds to clear the way
She is elemental
Wild and raw and rare
Her smile crepuscular
Her love blisteringly radiant
I live to study her meteorology

-gws

Let Me

Let me 
Write leading lines of poetry for you to follow
Tell stories that map the shape of a life for you to drag your finger along
Lay down relief lines that loop and dance in the shape of words

Let me expound through exposition about
The glory of the light and the shadow 
Playing tag across the ground on a late summer day

Let me create a charcuterie board
Where you may sample experiences
Bitter rejection
Sweet elation
Effervescent joy
Bilious sorrow
Buttery new love
Spicy lust

Let me fold words like origami 
Creating complex and beautiful things
Out of the simplest pieces 
Strung together in a garland
Every angle leading to an experience
Every plane representing a feeling

Let me be a mirror
That you may recognize
Something familiar in my lines
So that you know that you are not alone
In the experience that is living
But that we walk in parallel 
Submerged in this infinite sea of stars

-gws

Roses

I bought myself roses today
Colored for this transitional season
The meridian between winter and spring 
Watched the red robins play in quiet branches Coated in the soft white of early spring snow
Sat at my window sipping steaming coffee 
Tapping into a calm that was new to me
Reveling in the luxury of peaceful stillness 
And let myself smile

-gws

Closure

With naught even a whisper
I closed the book
Put down the pen
Then cracked a new book
To begin again…

-gws

Divorce

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

And so the sun begins its final setting
In that final twilight a transformation
US becomes YOU and ME
Without pomp or party
The bittersweet return to ourselves
Unwoven and remade 
Hopes already decaying underground
Receive no grave marker
Hard won freedom and quietly resonating loss
We are becoming reluctant singularities
This fading light falls upon the final paragraph in the book of us
Two new books await
Unmarred by pain and tears
I wish I could say there will be no mourning
There is a hole where the unwritten life was excised
A wound where the light just doesn't reach and never will
I am told this is not unreasonable
Deeply feeling people cannot stop feeling
Life is nowhere near so black and white to allow for such
I send with you the last of my hope
Hope you will find your way
Hope you will learn to heal your fractures
Hope you can become the father you wanted to be
As the calendar counts down
The minutes marching relentlessly by
I reflect on my love for you that never died
It just couldn't thrive or survive the wreckage we became
We have forever marked each other with kisses and scars
As stamp and ink erases us
I gratefully return you to your own keeping
And truly wish you well

-gws

This California Christmas

I thought there’d be one more Christmas 
Below the foggy redwood line
In the temperate golden sunlight 
Of California’s winter time 

But life had other plans for me
And so the next I knew 
My life was packed in boxes tight
And northward bound I flew

Here the winter skies are gray
The hush of snow abounds 
No California winter sun
Shines down upon this ground 

The life I’d come to know so well
The sea salt and rolling fog
The Bay and golden foothills 
Now grace this monologue 

This Christmas in our new home
Amongst the peaks and pines 
Finds my tiny family brood
Building new and joyful lives 

Those California Christmases
With lit palm trees in lines
Painted purple sunsets
Now only in my mind

Here night descends at 4PM
We tuck in nice and warm
The PNW slows life down
Outside my new front door

More time to talk about our days
New adventures we began
New traditions being created
With new family and friends 

Another California Christmas 
Has rolled around again
I reflect upon it fondly 
As my new chapter begins 

-gws

New Seasons

The leaves change here
Oranges and reds popping out 
Amongst stubborn green
The wind shifts
Autumn comes to call
The world leans in here
Demands life to slow down
The quiet season is coming
The world makes ready its winter bed
Telling you to pull out your blankets
Candles and hearthfires
Demanding preparations for long nights
Wood smoke and hot chocolates
And much needed rest

gws

A Potion for Healing

1 cup courage
3 cups self-love
Mix gently with a handful of self-forgiveness
1 cup worthiness
1/2 cup of grit
Season with wisdom by the heart full
Knead in generous amounts of humor
Add a splash of multifaceted and glinting tears
Let rest for as long as instinct dictates
Your heart will know when it is ready
Garnish with wonder and joy
Consume slowly to allow the medicine to work
Partake often until peace and wholeness feels achieved

gws