BLUE MONDAY

You for whom Monday dawns bluely

Not blue of gentian, of cirrus-combed skies,

Not cornflower, powder, periwinkle,

But bottomless blue bruise of ice,

Of frozen feather in a fox’s footprint:

I will stitch you a cloak of comfort in Arnolfini greens,

Swaddle your sadness in robes of amethyst,

Wrap your sorrow in sun-warmed apricots and ambers,

Dry your tears with tissues of cadmium and canary,

Warm your heart with carnelian and coquelicot reds.

I would not see you blue

But if that is where you must be for now,

I will walk out across

This fragile crust of slippy-sided blueness

To hold your hand

Under the frozen brow

To wait with you

For rainbows.

ANXIETY: PALE ROBBER

(This one's for all my friends struggling bravely in so many upsetting situations at the moment. Thinking you're alone. Please know you're not.)


A mirror distorting joy into a gargoyle.
A telescope bringing terror close as skin.
A magnifying glass of grief's despairing.

Anxiety.

A doubling of fears, a blank forgetting
A tripling of turmoil numbing drives and dreams
A well of weeping drags tomorrow under

Anxiety.

A deafening to birdsong and love's murmur
A toiling twice up every harrowing hill
A thief of calm, a churning, an abyss

Anxiety.

Hope? Oiled perfume drizzled on dry dead feelings
Hope? Soft palms cupping the frayed and fraught
Hope? The return, rebirth, the restoration
Of all that pale robber plunders from the heart.


(The photos here hint at the truth that I find my personal hope and comfort in the natural world and wonder of creation and creativity. May you bless yourself as you deserve to, by allowing yourself to drink from the fountain of your own deepest joys, to heal your heart when it feels lost in that fog of anxiety and helplessness. Thank you so much for stopping by!)