Notre Dame

The flames rose and I felt my soul on fire. The passion

of the faithful stirred inside me.

I felt my heart racing across time itself

towards the millions of magical moments

            carved into wood and stone.

I felt my pulse quicken and my breath

            catch in my lungs as I looked up into the frozen faces of

those guarding the doors.

I felt the tears slide down my cheeks

as they have since the beginning of time to make

holy water drops on stones so big it would take a miracle to

roll them anywhere – stones worn smooth by foot after foot of pilgrims

turned tourists still speaking their sanctified secrets to rose colored glass.  

The smoke made my throat dry as I sobbed into the cold

echo of existence – I’m so thirsty. I dipped my fingers into the fonts of

blessed water hoping to slake my thirst, to quench this fire burning inside me.

A need so deep it would drain oceans.

---

I'm still riding the wave of all the feelings that surfaced when I heard about the flames at Notre Dame yesterday. This is me giving you permission to be passionate about whatever it is that sets your soul on fire and to feel all the feelings that come with that passion. For me it is history and art and human creativity. The legacy of these things is what I cried intense tears for yesterday. Passion is feeling everything in its full intensity.

Stars

I looked up at the sky, at the stars –

the biggest, brightest stars I’d ever seen hanging low.

I looked again to see the white bellies of seagulls

coasting on the coastal wind, suspended on strings

from the sky, making their mark

in the galaxy like constellations in the night.

---

I did a double take this evening as I looked up at what I thought were the brightest stars I'd ever seen. The wind has been blowing like crazy all day - I'm glad the gulls were enjoying it.

Education in Haikus

Learning is the best!

I like it so much that I'll

make it my career.

---

Life is pretty grand

when reading and writing are

your occupation.

---

Today my problem

is that there are many

books, not enough time.

---

I read a lot of

poetry throughout today -

fifty poems at least.

---

When I can't travel

via plane, train, boat, or car

I just take a book.

---

Reading opens minds;

it unlocks all the doors

that were closed before.

---

So learning is currently my full time job. And my plan is to make that true for as long as possible by becoming a teacher. I know I'm headed in the right direction when all I can think about and talk about is how excited I am about what I'm learning, what I'm reading, what I'm writing.  In celebration of the fact that my biggest problem today was having too many amazing authors to choose from for my American Literature research project, here are six haikus that will start to convey how excited I am about learning!

Sailboats and Cowbells

The Sea foamed at the mouth with excitement over the wind’s arrival,

she desperately wanted to play; waving at her

friend, the Wind blew the crests back in a

shower of sparkling drops -  each a tiny prism in the sky

so many the view was hazy.

The Sea was eager to be a part of everything today; she leaped with the

Wind and spread out into the Sky.

The Wind ran along the water, through the streets, and into the harbor

ringing the rigging of the sailboats like cowbells as the herd came

meandering home: “Clink. Clink. Clink. Clank.”

---

Beach walks in the morning make for great subject matter.