Becoming

In July of 2019, I had the great fortune of being on a poetry hike in the lake district of England. On a working farm in Coniston. For several days we listened and hiked, reflected and shared as David Whyte read his poetry. I had wanted this experience for years, true bucket list item. Every morning the early risers would gather in a shared kitchen. On one morning, I was the first to arrive and all the coffee had been used. Disappointment met with a playful smile as I took to my rhyme. In the end, I reflect upon how my disappointments…my sense of not being enough…is exactly right!

Coffee beans
But no maker
A useless toaster
And no baker

A book of prose
Without my glasses
A ticking clock
But no time passes

A night to rest
But still no sleep
A mooing cow
But never sheep

A pocket in
my binder finds
the desires of
A younger mind

In the words
of “Years lost to...”
A fools errand
To a life anew

Words of poetry
Without a rhyme
Is just a place,
Another time

Songbirds singing
In the rising sun
A day to think
My life’s begun

For in my friends
Both old and new
I live to be
Myself with you

For I am nothing
Without myself
Like a pile of books
Without a shelf

I am grateful
the love you give
Time to show it
Time to live