March 18, 2024

Both my grandfathers had a hard life. Yet both loved life. Both loved people. Each had a quick smile and a deep laugh. Each gave before being asked. Each listened to whatever was difficult without looking away. They both died before I could ask. So where did I learn this? You can’t teach someone to lean in, to get up, to help out. We just offer comfort and care, the way a fire warms with its flame. Yet their presence... Read more

March 11, 2024

After walking days to meet Basho, a young man bowed and asked respectfully, “Why poetry?” The aging master, having lived through so much beauty and loss, smiled and said, “Come with me.” They hiked to a cliff overlooking the sea and Basho said, “Seeing life from near and far at once helps us live.” They watched the surf crash and roll. Then Basho added, “To listen for poetry is to stand before life on the cliff of your heart.” He... Read more

March 4, 2024

Some days, the simplest tasks seem weighty and endless: make the bed, tuck in the sheet, make the coffee, stir, and drink, find the bills, pay the bills. Some weeks, the days blur: get on the plane, get off the plane, get in the car, get out of the car, sign in here, sign out there. Then, I got your email saying: Isn’t this all a blessing? We get to make the bed and tuck in the sheet. We get... Read more

February 26, 2024

On March 11, 2011, a mammoth earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami that wreaked havoc in more than fifteen cities in northeastern Japan. Waves reached as high as 120 feet. More than 19,000 people were killed, and 2500 more have never been found. In thirty minutes, the town of Otsuchi was destroyed. In trying to make sense of his grief, a gardener from Otsuchi, Itaru Sasaki, said that he needed a place to air his grief. So he moved an empty... Read more

February 19, 2024

Despite the things that crack and break, there are these unexpected moments of calm, like the swing of a hammock in the one patch of light that warms our legs. These moments keep everything from falling apart, like the bluebird atop its small house, its blueness so pure it makes me drop all worry. The miracle isn’t always parting some vast sea. More often, it arrives like the strum of a guitar or a piece of silk slipping on the... Read more

February 12, 2024

At the party, I overheard you say: “I want to help but don’t know how.” I didn’t know you yet, so I said nothing. But I woke in the night wanting to find you and say: Just pick up the nearest blanket and look for someone who is cold. Or repair the thing next to you that is broken. If you’re too tired or weak, just close your eyes and simply hold the unknown fate of others in the palm... Read more

February 5, 2024

There is always a practice before the practice; a sitting before the incomprehensible long enough to feel and sometimes understand the Mystery each instrument and craft is designed to invoke. In Japan, before an apprentice can clay up his hands and work the wheel, he must watch the master potter for years. In Hawaii, before a young man can ever touch a boat, he must sit on the cliff of his ancestors and simply watch the sea. In Africa, before... Read more

January 29, 2024

The prophet Zarathustra, whose name means undiluted star, said that gravity is the irrefutable force of love that binds us together. And the Chinese sage Mencius said that our impulse to drop everything to save a child from falling into a well—this holds everything together. And the rabbis of Eastern Europe rang their bells at dawn like spiritual roosters, barking that God is dormant until you are in relationship. They would chant, “Get up and make God visible!” Isn’t this... Read more

January 22, 2024

When I say that I retrieve the poems, I mean I am part of a relational process that allows the intangible forces of life to be seen in the world. I speak about discovery and retrieval over authorship, because I don’t believe we create things out of nothing. At least, that has been my lifelong experience. It’s more a conversation with the unknown and the unseeable. I am not retrieving from some other world but from this one. In ancient... Read more

January 15, 2024

This is how it happens. Everything runs smoothly till suddenly the body, like a car, overheats. It coughs and creaks. It won’t start in the rain. For me, my stomach was unable to process all I swallowed, and one day it stopped working like a backed-up sink. One too many bites and the pain was unbearable. After a week of tests, I was at the store picking up cottage cheese when I realized I had to keep living. I put... Read more


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