STILL

It's funny how you come up when places like Brookline Booksmith are mentioned or how I think of you when Umberto Eco mentions a word on NPR ("protocols") that sounds like a topic of conversation we once had you appear in the macular of my mind's eye and hover there latent suckling at the breast of love with your wide dark eyes hungry and desperate for what my breasts cannot provide food for your heart a salve for your soul

IRENE

living yet silent
gritting your teeth and steeling your sinews
standing sodden
green with moss and dripping with rain
you raise your beleaguered eyes
through your dripping hair
and long for the calm
your roots represent

UNTITLED

thank you for the roses
by the wayside

thank you for the thorns

PORTMANTEAU

it was as if the word circled itself
on page 19
but certainly I must have done it
sometime after 3 a.m.
when I read your words
and asked, "What does that mean?"

you explained
and I fell
and the pen dragged
around the page

THOUGHTS ON A BIKE RIDE

Promise me we won't ever get a satellite dish

or use vinyl siding

or have a two-car garage


Promise me you'll sit with me on the porch

and help me garden in the yard

and ride with me like this

WRITING PROMPT: WHERE I WOULD LIKE TO GO ON VACATION AND WHY

I want to sail with my brother in Arichat harbor

on a boat he made with his own two hands.

We'll watch the Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins

race and feed alongside our boat.

When the sun gets low, we'll pull her into shore

and share a glass of wine on our porch.

June 2008

MISSION OF HOPE

this is what chosen feels like

closed eyes
bowed head
smoothed hair

and His hands on my face

eyes wide open

Colossians 3:12

ON DESCRIBING HANNEKE CASSEL'S FIDDLE

strong as sinew
and golden as honey

you sway with that amber appendage
like a stick of butter
that doesn't melt in your hands

but it could

THE ORANGE REVOLUTION

the sun
like a benediction setting on your yesterday
reaching its rays ahead

so that you may go forward
and she might go down

UNTITLED

the world is like a Japanese landscape

scruffy and pastel
softened by the snow
scratched by the scrubby trees
and stacked against the moon drop sky

January 28, 2010

THE LOST FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATES

Update your status:

Cari is the prisoner of the Lord.

Cari is focusing on the positive.

Cari is missing her best friend.

Cari is tired of listening to torch songs all day. 

Cari is doubting her decision every day.

Cari is wondering if she will ever be happy again. 

Cari is tired of waking up feeling sick to her stomach. 

Cari is surprised to discover that "The Muppets Take Manhattan" has subtitles in different languages including Chinese and Thai.

Cari is in love with The New York Times.

Cari is tired of hearing the Indian music through the floor.

Cari is wondering why House and Wilson broke up. 

In that order.

IF

If only the things I have learned
and the progress I have made
could be complete

And the tears I have shed finally dry

I could see with new eyes
and believe in my heart

That you are all I need

Philippians 1:6

ALLERGIC TO JESUS

Do you have an allergic reaction
to the Communion wafer

Or does your throat close up at the suggestion
of laying down your life and picking up your cross?

I choke a little bit on giving till it hurts

On not buying pair of boots that I want
to help someone who needs boots instead

Surely He didn't mean that
Surely He couldn't mean that

Right?

Cough

A BEAUTIFUL SURPRISE

There was a strange sensation
Like the throbbing of a vein at the surface
Or the dripping of rain from the roof

Neither seemed out of the realm of possibility
But then I began to wonder if it might be an insect
Tangled in the hair on my napping head


I reached up to investigate and felt nothing

After a moment of relief and incredulity
I noticed my mother sitting in a chair at the head of the couch

Was that you? I asked

Sorry, I woke you

Oh, I was already awake

And then--though I was certain of the answer--
for she has had a not-too-frequent history of stroking my hair

What were you doing?


Oh, I was just thanking God that you're here

But I didn't expect that

RELIEF OR RELIEVER

Why is it, that most of the time
we simply want relief
from our trials, our problems, our pain
more than we want the Reliever
who is the Source of all relief?

How does the Reliever feel
when we needy beings
clamor for what He has to offer
and not for Himself?

Is He a celestial sugar daddy
who pays our debts and gives us things
without asking anything in return?

Or might He be like any other loving being
who wants to be loved for who He is
and not merely for the blessings He can provide?

I know He is the latter
but my selfish heart wants what He can give
more often than I want to give myself to Him.

Poor schmuck.

UPON WAKING WITH MY FEET STICKING OUT OF THE BEDCLOTHES

I can feel a diamond
in the rough inside of me
dark and hard-fisted
but gleaming at the center
when the birds sing
but spring is far away
and the hedgehog can't get out of his hole

[Older] words I made...

http://scaricari.blogspot.com/search/label/words%20i%20made

106

the roads to your house were rutted and tarred
and made leaving you
feel like a punishment


the paths are now smooth to the home that you've left
and makes leaving you
easy