Owen helped me film my contributions to the Earth Stanzas project. You can view them on our YouTube channel.
unexpected generosity
I keep apologetically
thanking my son
for helping me,
for spending his time
on something important to me,
and he’s just puzzled
why I should be
this grateful
for Margaret
she lives and speaks
deliberately
with intention
a stretching out of her heart
to everyone
she listens to the stars
and the lap of the lake
she makes a cup of tea
for death
and a nest for birth
she tucks each little brother
and sister in warm
before laying down her own bones
she brings all her attention
to each blessed day
a poet paying taxes
it’s time to add up every pen and pencil
notebook business card visor
from the last year
what did I use to make what I made?
then I’ll pay my town their tiny portion
I don’t mind the tithe –
it’s the terrible reckoning,
weighing what little went in versus out,
reading the silent critical subtext
embedded in the unassailably impartial numbers;
it’s the unflattering appraisal
of the value of my time
here –
that’s what I’m avoiding tonight
wrapped in a wool blanket
with the laptop decidedly closed
maybe tomorrow I’ll have the strength
to add the columns up
or rather
subtract what it all cost me
