So, if you don't have a fireplace, or if, in the moment, no fire is blazing or softly snoring, then, read a poem. It will warm you up.
We went to see the movie Capote this afternoon. It made my top movie list. It is an amazing film.
I have chemo tomorrow beginning at 8:20, so I am requesting support. I try not to feel scared, and that is a battle I have not yet won. My body starts to brace, so visualizations of peaceful support will be received, and appreciated. Thank you!!
Sleep tight, and wrap in the light of poetry. It makes a warm fire.
I offer two logs, "Winter Garden" and "Balancing Stones" by Amy Uyematsu from her book "Stone Bow Prayer"
Winter Garden
Inside, this light
is so lean -
each dry branch
a pale brown line,
my fingers also
slender like twigs.
I've kept desert flowers
in my bedroom,
removed them
from a winter's wind.
When rearranged
a few more white blossoms
fall, here
on the darker
ground of my hand,
new snow.
Balancing Stones
center of gravity: the single point in
a body toward which every particle
of matter external to the body
is gravitationally attracted.
Webster's Dictionary
I have seen
ordinary hands
able to place
one stone upon another
no matter how
different the shapes
or unlikely
the weights
What holds them
together
is some center
invisible to the eye
only realized
when the hands
are patient
and trust is complete
How else
to explain
their creating
stone sculptures
with no nails
or cement
no welding tools
for support
The tip
of a craggy stone
becomes the unlikely
pin able to steady
the heft of a rounder
stone whose surface
is curving
and smooth.
On the sloping
top of one shore stone
a second leans without slipping
the third smaller and jagged
then the large oval
to form a tower
undisturbed
by sea breeze
There is a locus
some hands can find
a single point
in the body
to which another
separate body
is gravitationally
attracted
I have seen
such harmony
rooted in the impossible
position of two stones' hearts
no matter how oblique
the angle
one center
holding
firmly to the other