I look up from my book
The air ringing with sounds
Ceramics scraping wood
Steam hissing
Laughs entangling with sighs
A woman sits by the window
Hands wrapped around a cup
Tea tag wound around fingers
But I was drawn to the lipstick on her teacup
-gws
I lay beneath a starless sky
Wondering where they have gone
Have they become the freckles
Dancing across my nose
Strands of silver streaking my hair
Glitter in my joyful tears
Have they fallen to Earth
So I can shine
-gws
Sometimes
A woman is an island
Steadfast amid the violence
Of salt water and storm cloud
Eyes ever focused
Where the sky caresses the sea
Kissed all over by the ebb and flow of waves
Dancing with moontides
Volcanic at times
Worn and weathered and wiser
As beautiful at sunrise as sunset
As much a force as nature herself
-gws
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 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
With naught even a whisper
I closed the book
Put down the pen
Then cracked a new book
To begin again…
-gws
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
I experienced the blood without feeling
Without feeling the wound
To heal the wound
I must feel the pain
Then do the work
To clean it away
There is no healing
Without feeling
-gws
Seasons are changing
I’m surprised to find myself In
In a spring awakening
Possibilities bloom
While dreams grow deep roots
-gws
To any who my words reach
In a time and place I will never see
I hope the world is kind
And if such things as kindness
Still prove fleeting
I charge you with performing
Defiant acts of kindness
That your efforts might fall
Like seeds upon fallow fields
And grow like wildflowers
In the hearts of those you touch
-gws
Words Wishes and Wisdom 