Let the Wind Dance You
This little poem is about a shivering little tree near the top of a mountain (see a video of the actual tree below). But it’s also about giving yourself a break. There were taller trees…
Author: James A. Pearson
When That Fire, a poem about life’s fearsome autumns (and surviving them)
When I first wrote this poem I thought it would be the beginning of a longer piece, something with more of a redemptive arc. I tried and tried to find the rest of the poem,…
Look to the Sky
I wrote this poem about a month ago while watching the sky one evening. It was based mostly on an intuition and a gathering sadness about all we’re losing in the world. I wasn’t sure…
Vows to the Mystery
Think back to the very beginning of something you were excited about. Maybe you’d just gotten a great new job, or started dating someone you were really interested in. Or maybe it was a new…
The Space Between Us
This is the poem I wrote for my wedding. I spent months on it. And on Saturday I finally got to see it do its work in the world when we used it to open…
The First Promise
This is a poem of permission. A lot of people wish they could push pause for a little while, but they’re afraid to show any uncertainty about the life they’ve constructed for themselves. They’re afraid…
Permission to Lose Interest
Looking up through the windshield atdark wings and a white headcrossing high above I-5. “Just a seagull,” I hear myself say—permission to lose interest, permission to close downthe aqueducts of wonder. How quickly I abandon…
Nobody Knew
Nobody knewthe cherry treeswould bloom today.How quietly they must havewhispered together,huddled in thedeepest ends of their roots,as winter’s death creptdown their branches.But slowly— as slowly as Earthtilts her headback toward the Sun—a chorus grew, some…
It’s in Everything
It’s in everything, this dancingof something that’s more than just life.Look at the trees near the shore,how they shimmy and wave over the bright face of the Salish Sea. Meanwhile the waters rush in—mad for…
Learning to See the Invisible Realities
I remember the moment I realized that women experience a different reality than men. A friend in Uganda—a woman and fellow expat—was telling me what it was like to walk through a busy market by…