It was alone when I felt most far away

Yesterday before I slept
I imagined myself without you,
and my stomach cartwheeled and kicked
and the air in my room
was compressed into a cube
and dropped onto my chest
and it was heavy without really trying
and cumbersome in its size
and stayed pressed upon me
until I gathered up my thoughts
and counted our days.

I woke up crying

Without trying
I remembered a play I had read
once before,
about war and empty woods,
as I walked alongside a man
I had once known clearer than myself.
A boy ate a cooking apple there
as he tried all he could
to make his way through days
far from his own design,
and as green hills grew steeper
and the man I had known so well
walked farther ahead
I saw with utter clarity
that there was only forward
and yesterday was dead.

Barack Obama was re-elected as the President of the United States...

  ...and so I painted his portrait to celebrate.

2012

The world was bigger
than the tiny choices,
but each one,
piled on top of the last,
built a platform
high enough from which
to see it all clearly
and to begin
making change.

As we continue travelling

He stood with the door open behind him
and looked out onto roads
that had once bought him here.
He grabbed blue gloves from his pocket,
pulled the fingers right side in,
and put his hands inside.
It had grown cold suddenly
and the air felt like staples on his face.
The sun was absurdly bright for the time of year.

It overlooked the water

I was never one for climbing trees
and so was surprised,
when my head rose over the bough,
that I could almost see forever
and was hardly scared at all.

A tiny birthday woodland Stoat

I think this quote might change my life

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open… No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."-Martha Graham

Somewhere in between two places

The sky had quickly turned pink
and it made the sand glow whimsical
beneath our feet.
We were an hour from sleep
and my eyes were heavy with tired.
In the distance I saw mountains.

Cassette

I had a friend once
who sat beneath my bed
and put her voice inside a tape.
'Now I'm not here,' she said,
'it's as though I never left.'
If I hadn't known better
I could have sworn I heard birds
behind her.