Inclusion must

In the noise we collectively must choose to speak and enable the voices of others to speak for justice to prevail. 

The breaking of barriers must not get lost in noise or systematic frameworks. Our myopia created by our unique lens of our personal circumstances is a formidable barrier to carving a path for others like ourselves or unlike us, together. 

We must find our own accountability and speak unmasked to those in leadership.

Rest

When I take time-out 

slow down

I see the the dust balls, laundry and piles 

piles of books

piles of notes

piles of incomplete

and rest deepens

into depression

I tinker with these posts

for which I took time-out 

before today.

I fill in some. I modify the punctuation.

I find scraps of me.

The clock ticks 

Task to-be-done.

Embrace the day.

Gathering with poets

What gathering with poets reminds me.

• We have something shared that is both similar and dissimilar.
• Listening opens us to new places within ourselves.
• Discovery is central. Some take pleasure in the scaffolding of form or the tease of puzzling within it. Others take flight abandoning form completely. Others pick'n choose what to punctuate. 
• Why poems: To express. To find. To Tear. To laugh. To become more whole. 

The prompt: 

Write a poem from what instantly connects with you in this poem

To Go to Lvov by Adam Zagajewski TRANSLATED BY RENATA GORCZYNSKI

Of nature and seasons

only gardens and weeds and the amber of Queen Anne cherries in drops of rain and in the thorns of roses...Frozen forsythia yellowed. If streams mumble ... and grass snakes disappear

into thickets

with soft ferns, boundless fields of summer, lances of trees —of poplar and ash, green armies of burdocks     at dawn when dew gleams snails converse about eternity     pure as a peach 

Of spirituality

Dedicated to the Almighty the cathedral rises ... as straight as Sunday The bells pealed ... the cornets of nuns ... the Jesuits baptized plants Orthodox church’s silence without Mercy.          Why must every city become Jerusalem and every man a Jew?               I’d resurrect them so singly; the New Testament.  

Of metaphor

Like soft signs, fainting maidens, schooners near the theater ... dew gleams on a suitcase ...within frontiers not just in my passport ...murmur of each stone, scorched

 Of change

Converse. Breathe aloud. Burst. Overflow. Expect. Laugh with lighting. Express in haste. ALOUD for eternity. Encore. Encore. Cut the censors that they might go breathless.

Whirrr is what we do

That moment you comb memory but are oh so stuck in muck.

That moment you find your missing glasses perched on the crown of your head.
That moment you smell burning, not boiling, water. Damaged Diamond.

That moment you wake to what you had forgotten.

That moment someone-else's priority distracts.
That moment the voice in your head interrupts "This is something ..." 
That moment good writing feeds you an unforgettable line. More insight a Google away.
That moment you ignore pause, rewind, replay to be present.
That moment you wake in drool. Missed it. The very thing you stretched your day for.

That moment you inhale Spring, lungs compressing for life itself.
That moment you think "Is cardio class over yet? Again. Again. And again. 

That moment you can not hold the laughter back and splatter your joy into your drink.
That moment you lean in to a hug.

That moment a question alights that you know will not be answered, so you do not ask.
That moment you stop reading to read again.
That moment you realize this person has become a friend.
That moment you realize being a mom is something you just do.

That moment you lost another poem. 
That moment you read another poem and your heart goes whirrr 
transports you back over 50 years

It went "Zip" when it moved
And "Bop" when it stopped
And "Whirrr" when it stood still
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will.

~~~~ 1st draft -- the bones of it ~~~~
That moment you wake up realizing what you had forgotten.
That moment when you stop reading to read again.
That moment you hear a story and the voice in your head says I must remember that line.
That moment you are interrupted by someone-else's priority, distracted, maybe never to return to your moment.
That moment the good writer of a TV drama feeds you an unforgettable line which in trying to be present with the story, you do not remember well enough to Google. The value of replay if you have the moments.
That moment you walk into the gym and inhale the clean of it thankful, but lungs compressing for life itself.
That moment you think is cardio class over yet. Again. Again. Again. 
That moment you can not hold the laughter back and splatter your joy into your drink.
That moment you want to find a date for in your memory, but are oh so stuck in muck.
That moment you want to ask a question that you know will not be answered, so you do not ask.
That moment you realize this person has become a friend.
That moment you realize being a mom is something you just do.
That moment you lost another poem. 
That moment you read another poem and your heart goes whirrr transports you back over 50 years 

~~~ related ~~~
Don't Allow the Lucid Moment to Dissolve by Adam Zagajewski