Category: Poetry

Self-Compassionby James A. Pearson Remember that a lakecan freezeand unfreezea thousand times and feel no shame. A coach I worked with a couple years ago often reminded me that life is a cycle of forgetting and remembering. Over and over. One day you feel close and connected with yourself, with the world. The next day… Continue reading Self-Compassion Poem

Patience darling,it’s still too earlyto trust the seasonwith that tenderness you holdin your globed hands. I can feel it, too—the yearning to plantyour fingers in the warming earthand release what’s so alive in youinto the scrum of all life. But the ground’s still frozen beneath all this mud.And winter, even on its way outwill take with… Continue reading The Mud Season

by Antonio Machado (my translation) Walker, only your footprintsare the path, and nothing else;Walker, there is no path,paths are made by walking.Your walking becomes the path,and when you look backyou see a trail you can neverset foot on again.Walker, there is no pathexcept wakes upon the sea. Eight years ago I packed everything I owned… Continue reading Caminante

I wonder if you can pause—just for a moment—the emergency of your lifeand step outinto the quiet of the world. Hear how gently it conveysthe delicate thread of birdsong,how quickly it can soothethe rupture of a passing jet.Feel its vast, smiling invitationto rest back intothe person you’ve been all your life. Listen now–the poppies burstingout… Continue reading Worker Bees

The forest closes behind meand now this subtle path at my feetis the red thread between worlds,a path made by the soft stepsof wild things, who are at homein the tangled mystery. But I am new to this way of walking—how the trail flirts and teases,fading and hiding and calling you on;how it disappears and… Continue reading Game Trails

The day after the election was called I went for a walk in the local forest. It was a cold day. Thick clouds had layered the sky since morning. But just before the sun went down it slipped beneath the gray and lit the trees in a beautiful, heatless glow. Something about the whole autumn… Continue reading Where We Are Now

Take back that part of yourselfyou lent to politicians.Peel their slogans from your mouthand pledge your allegianceto the mother down the streetwhose kids have grown outoftheir summer shoes again. And if you’re going to raise a flaglet it be the flag of forgiveness,the flag of our complicityin so much we say we’re against.Under that flag… Continue reading What To Do After Voting

As I watched the wave of COVID-19 build I felt a deep sadness growing in myself. There would be so much suffering. And now that wave has started to break. I have friends who’s livelihoods are threatened. I have acquaintances who are sick and fearing for their lives. I have friends of friends who’ve already… Continue reading A New Practice

In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in a dark wood where the true way was wholly lost. The opening lines of Dante’s Divine Comedy Look how this wildernessswept in around us—while we slept,while we paid the rent,while we ordered another round. By the time we looked upall our paths were… Continue reading Surrounded

My body’s been holding a lot of anxiety lately. I search for information, get anxious, so search for more information, and the cycle continues. Last Thursday I took a break and went to a local park that has a few hundred acres of old growth forest. This poem came out of that short trip. I… Continue reading Meanwhile