The table spread in the world/does not belong to us/it belongs to the one we follow/the one we look for/the one who forgives all/loves all/all things are ready/means hearts are ready/to love

Every beauty has a shadow/too late/ great sorrow we learn/the most hardy resilient beauty/once ruthlessly pruned/lives to blossom/riotously full of dazzling light

Our father/died an old man/surrendered/ gracefully the things he jealously acquired/suffered from exceptionally bungled palliative care/non-existent/one early Thanksgiving/the just stuffed Turkey in the oven/back curled half waking/ the call came/rushed to his still side/ear to chest listened to the sound/of cells grinding to halts/felt spirit depart/a decade later I went to his grave/laid down on the cold grass/tried to remember our fights/our putting up with each other’s differences/ kind of love/there was something there/something in the crying cold wind/something that forecast comfort/today I live far from all our graves/I visit and honor them every day/with every fearless inventory of conscience/with every considerate hospitable gesture/holding things lightly/treasuring times of presence/in the light/with that kind of love/

They rest/they rest from their labors/they rest from their labors and their works/works of love/of painstaking love/of sacrificial love/of unconditional/unstinting love/do remain/with us/in us/through us/their amazing love lives/on

This kuebiko/this hanging here immobilized/as horror upon travesty/eats honor and noble possibilities/for the executioners breakfast/make my last meal/some kind of energy drink/oh yes/the broken body/the spilled blood/the sacrament of broken people and lives/restored/not retributive justice/that’s it/that’s the one/ we need/

Tonight I reflect on love/the stuff that lasts/that shows up for the tough part/that is worn down/though never worn out/love that looks out of the window/and still sees beauty/despite the pain

Walking and praying/for friends/for mothers/for love that never ends/in the time/in the season/trying to walk the lessons/of patience/of art as life/of crafting garments/knowing the hill and far turquoise waves wait/knowing well the steady gait you taught us/we your children will wrap ourselves in your dignity/and pronounce the words of life

This is a light sculpture called Expansions by Paige Bradley//
The light explodes from the deep/the brokenness begets more light/we become thin vessels as everything migrates off/we have nothing/almost we are nothing/nothing but the light refracted/by a million billion cells of love

I wonder if God/yearned for brilliance/spangled colors thirsted/for painted hills/as the cold year crept close/as I impulsively/drape my world/the seeping changes/flow from the heart of God/flow from the heart of me