8/31

We are buffeted, bullied by Atlantic storm waves

Surged high, giving a free rein on high winds allowing

Respite from grief.

8/30

A gift today of company, sweet little"sister"in law and

A time to be together remembering other days, these days, you,

To be family.

8/29

Along sun-dappled warming roads, I ride with Faith,

Soon to hear her sing and where I no longer have song,

Hers lift me.

8/28

Look within the moment, for each is it's own small piece,

And prepare a place that allows one to weigh one's humor

Breath by breath.

8/27

Two friends paint with me, work with me on

An idea Annie & I have. Good to see what works, to

See them work.

Later their husbands bring lobsters and butter and wine.

An evening of talk, a house happy with guests and I yes, but

Miss you so.

8/26

Like young puppies full of life, of love

Come the pair I saw married months back to

Visit with me,

Ride horses with me, with a friend,

Break bread, talk of their time, old times,

Times with you.

8/25

Tonight a full moon shines bright and the tides rise high

As high as ever they did this last terrible winter past, flooding

Only to ebb low.

Tonight a cacophony of honks heralds a first flight of geese

A ragged arrow arcing west, wings whir-whirring which

Only I hear.

Tonight yet again I will lie my head down

On a single pillow, under sheets air cooled,

Only one alone.

8/24

This closet holds two dear hugs woven from threads

Dyed colors sweet, but sweeter yet the thoughts one

Held for me.

The gift's beauty is reflected in the dearness of the giver,

Whose thoughts of wrapping arms around the relentless tide of

Grief's hard sway

In hopes of proffering comfort in a moment gentled in a plait

Of softly dyed threads, reminds one of the loveliness held here,

A sweet blessing

8/23

During this hour, these yesterdays and tomorrows

I go about the day doing little of difference, seems, than

Ever I did.

Walk the dogs, throw hay to horses, tidy the place,

Talk with friends, paint and do my chores as

Ever I did.

But ever before all done in the beautiful cocoon

Of our community of two, now in singled solitude as

Never I did.

8/22

How words can hurt and I did allow a friend's unwitting

Ones to cut me, for certain because they would have you,

Had you heard.

Had you been here today, riding with us, with me

The only term used in the joshing would have been

Frugal, no doubt.

And I could reword a phrase too. So, we both repent,

Jeesopeet, the words misused and the pain caused.

I miss you.

8/21

I do manage to keep on, trucking I suppose, filling time

Sometimes fixing it to my needs, keeping myself

Upright and steady.

But not a day, an hour, a minute passes that loneliness

Creeps content to fill your space in me with despair, however

Hard I hold.

8/20

This morning out by the door to your studio I painted

This view of the soft light across the fields we found

Pleasing through us.

8/19

For there is no aloneness, no solitude, no obligation to isolation

Vowed as fierce as this placed between us, unchosen, life now a line

Changed by kind.

8/18

This summer spent working elsewhere is done and I,

I have returned to a lull, a neap in the tides of progress to

This place alone.

Hope was to earn these months the hard will to gather

The glass shards I sleep with and through this fiery drought,

Reshape my metal.

Brittle the glass of my heart, yeah molten would easier mold,

But this anguish of soul, heralded by loneliness, can not break easy

Past the solitude.

8/17

Getting started is not a simple thing, even through this summer

Spent seeking orientation, looking for the gesture sweeping

Enough to carry.

These small onsets, small paintings of small concepts held dear

Encompass the large gesture of a friend's consent to share her

Ideas with mine.