Cousin Tootsie/how sweet it is/born in 1924/woman of the world/artist/kindness/belly dancing/ bikini wearing/with style /in year ninety one/dance in beauty/dance in love/dance in light/holding you dreaming/ all you have held/sweetly/lightly/we sing a song of you/delicately/ generous and kind/we sing your song/with love

We have been above the clouds/and below in the fiery pit/God is no more there/than anywhere else/ beauty lies in knowing/the place beyond pain/agonizing loss/paralyzing fear/has a name above names/God with us/turning away/going stubbornly/alone/has another/endless name/just/don’t forget/the light/of moon star and sun/reflected in every surface/puddle/skyscraper/teardrop/ always crying out/remember/the way home

And what becomes of the child/the child becomes the love they are shown/the care/the sacrifice/the art of showing love/is nurtured long before the gift

To warm ourselves by the light/of friendship/is a special gift/to stir the embers of long-time friendships/to discover leaping flames/delight/ new friendships/dive into the depths/with hardly a ripple/we surface and buoyantly float/in the joyful light of thanksgiving

We grow like hungry flowers/yearning for the light of love/rebuke us not/our hunger proceeds in the ways of life/just is/will not diminish/though your burdens increase/your distractions/closed latched doors/will only make us apply our eyeballs/to the thin crevice of love light/more than more

Symbol of life/never dies/frames living within itself/builds community/crosses borders/opens avenues to abundant beauty/cradles our hopes

A watery view/for the nights I closed wet eyes/opened leaking lids/the way of this world/leaving me inconsolable/watercolor blurring the edges of pain/until one day I was surprised by simple joy/for the days I learned to live again/without you

Storm’s a brewing and churning/lives changed forever/my small plans altered/discontinued but not disconsolate/I will rise again/to heed the rain

On distant continents/while our trees turn red and blaze gold/our carpets of earth crackle/and the chill settles in the air/in other dear lands/trees are blazing purple/arbor the roads in delicate shades/ slippery paths of lavender/slick the wayside/as there in that precious home of beloved memory/ spring settles sweetly in the air

Today I thought about sowing peace/dreamed of dappled light on soft grasses/far from the strain of driven energies/I thought I would turn my face back to the love that launched me/the oneness with all that lives