Appreciation

Acceptance
... is a kind of
charity, a charity to
others. It’s like to say
you do not need to
lie for me, you do
not need to guild around
my locked heart. It’s
like to say I do not
need to waste away.

The spirit cannot accept
- it cannot pass away,
pinnacles and chimes, olives,
minarets and azure seas.

But, it will listen, and only
when the soul draws in
a breath and says, hush,
be still and shut your
mouth, focal point of
tasting and expressing –
that constant, overweaning
tailor. We can lean to
others and learn, but, when
they say, away, be gone and
shut up your shop ... and we
return to another year alone,
that’s when we need to choose
our path, to seek to soften
out the days with chanter
once again, or look in

and silent survey and
think no care and think
no care or blame away,
to seek no ease but search
the truth, pick through all
its pockets, shuffle around
all those receipts and
draw
in, tense and tension,
like a suspension of a
bridge, and cantilever the
spirit to the soul and
accept.