13

iced wind
pushed us
into the warm
Italian restaurant

12

tall weed with
bell-shaped
crowns of
peachy blossoms dangling

11

beneath thick bramble
a song sparrow scratches, hops,
scraping dry leaves for it's insect lunch

10

parked beneath the ancient pine
I look up--
it's needles and branches waving in the cold wind,
pinecones like grenades weighing down
against the grey sky,
quickly-moving clouds undulate

9

9 is 6 reversed:
yin and yang,
pos-neg,
yes-no,
head to wiggly toe:
black and white,
night and day--
today is day 9
what else can you say?

8

My own slanted handwriting
scrawled across pages and pages--
tracing back days, weeks, years

7

ice cubes clink the empty glass--
when we're together his drink is never finished

6

Squishing lemons, cucumber, pineapple
smashing with my knife
-the white plastic cutting board-
and juice running all over my
hands and onto the floor

5

Sky opens up like cracked yolk
gooey orange, pinks and grays
illuminated, striped and striated:
strips of paper clouds and liquid
sky

4

quitting time
the central heating system
rattles and hums

3

On a concrete bench in the park near the freeway: a stream of car engines rushing by, a basketball bouncing, a child's shrill screech, a construction worker's cough, a black phoebes chirp, a gate opens, a crumpled newspaper near my foot on the grass advertises .99 cent sweet yellow onions, cherry tomatoes are 2 for $6.

2

Three shorebirds pluck
and bob and bend their knees
sucking cold mud with
rubbery feet:

the dowitcher
the godwit
the curlew.

small stone#1

California winter--
my breath like steamclouds
despite the morning sun

mindful writing challenge

Happy New Year!

It's been a while since I've posted, but I'll soon be back in the swing since I'm taking the Mindful Writing Challenge in January 2013.  Here are some quick guidelines, otherwise, just click on the link above for more detailed instructions:

Will you be joining our Mindful Writing Challenge this year?
 
 Start 2013 by clearing space for beauty.

The Everso Quick Version: 

1. Notice something properly every day during January.
2. Write it down.

That's it. You can stop reading now. Go out and buy yourself a gorgeous notebook, start writing your small stones, and you'll be in the river. If you join half-way through January you can either write 31 daily small stones or stop at the end of the month.

I'll begin posting a small stone every day beginning January 1st. 

Hope you'll join!

small kindnesses

Kindness needn't be obvious.

Sometimes just listening properly can be enough.

When we tune in with awareness, we care for those we love without asking anything in return.

Unconditional love.

Giving it is one thing, accepting it, another.

It requires trust.  As a writer, trust is sometimes hard to come by.  So, as writers, we support each other.

Today, participating bloggers around the world are writing about small kindnesses in the spirit of relaunching Fiona Robyn's book. 

Since in the States, we've just celebrated Thanksgiving, I thought for small kindnesses blogsplash day, I'd post something I wrote recently for a class in the spirit of giving.  Excluding the title it's exactly 100 words.

100 Ways of Giving

Accept Action Animals Apples Art Awareness Belief Benign Buddhist Butter Care Christian Compassion Confidence Cranberries Deliberate Destitute Diligence Dogma Elephant Emancipation Equality Excellence Family Fear Feast Formal Fortitude Ginger Global Gratitude Grace Green Beans Gruyere Homeless Holiday Hope Hospitality Hunger Inspire Invisible Importance Jovial Justice Kindness Kindred Love Life Liquid Lunch Mashed Motherhood Money Nature Nothingness Nurture Ocean Onions Onward Open Oppressed Passion Patience People Potatoes Prayer Quince Quintessential Quotient Rest Revere Rice Roasted Sacrifice Self Song Sparrow Stuffing Squash Terrorism Thanks Turkey Unconditional Ubiquitous Unction Value Virtuous Valiant Volunteer Walnuts Work Wonder Wine Xtreme Yams You Yukon Zen Zzzzzzzzz.

 Fiona's book is free for download for a limited time on the 26th and 27th of November. 

small kindnesses blogsplash

On Tuesday the 27th of November I'm joining the Small Kindnesses Blogsplash and writing about a special small kindness someone paid me in the past.

Would you like to join me?


The Blogsplash is organised by Fiona Robyn to celebrate the release of her novel 'Small Kindnesses' which will be free on Kindle on the day.

 All you have to do is write something about being kind - a memory of someone who was kind to you, a list of kindnesses over the past week, or something kind you did for someone else.

It'll be a celebration of kindness in all its forms, especially those little kind acts that make all the difference (like this one Fiona wrote about).

To find out more visit Fiona's blog (http://www.writingourwayhome.com/2012/11/what-small-kindness-do-you-remember.html), or join the Facebook event (http://www.facebook.com/events/226720897457793).

Do ask your friends to join you, and feel free to copy this blog onto your own to help us spread the word.

See you on the 27th!

[. . .]

once settled
on the train
she removed
her hat
and coat

stain

November sixteenth
a kitchen spoon left
on the counter
for days

visit

On the balcony
having tea--
surrounded by
cheerful knick-knacks--
she is usually alone
unless I visit

*

In the dark
without my glasses
the silhouette of boots
mistaken for my cat