MEANINGMAKER

poetry

  • this too shall pass

    A small poem. A simple one. This too shall pass: we say it like a spell — like it will hurry hard things along. But the good things pass too. The ease. The sweetness. The precious small things we’ve pressed… Continue reading

  • act your age

    I read an article yesterday about Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow — women who are stunning, powerful, and who happen to be surrounded by every tool modern beauty culture can offer. But the article warned that even they… Continue reading

  • all the days we did not live

    I decided to walk to work this morning. Unusual for me in the winter. On my way, I happened to see an unhoused woman curled up on the cold sidewalk on the other side of the street, surrounded by the… Continue reading

  • heaven is a campfire

    I like to thinkthat before any of us had bodieswe sat around a campfirein heaven,leaning into its warmthletting the light touch our faces,our knees tucked up to our chests.The flames crackledlike tiny miracles,sending up sparksas if the stars were being… Continue reading

  • definition

    Woke /wohk/(adjective.) The moment a person stands uprightin the full measure of their seeing.As in what Pope Leo said:To be called woke in a world that sleepsthrough sufferingis no insult. Or,the strange conditionin which noticing the worldis treated as more… Continue reading

  • a mirror in minneapolis

    Two liveswhose names readlike promisesthe world failed to keep:Good. Pretti. What a bitter sermontheir deaths preach:That goodness is no armour,that beauty is not spared,that loving your peoplewill cost your life.A dark gospelspelled out in their bloodon the streets of Minneapolis.… Continue reading

  • lift what you can

    My mother taught me  to shovel snow the way I imagine some mothers teach prayer – patient, shoulder to shoulder. She’d come home from a long day, and say: Come on, let’s go. Out into the dark we went, into… Continue reading

  • altitude

    I was up way too early this morning. On my way to the train, also way too early, I saw this worker standing at the edge of a condo tower under construction a block from our house. I could never… Continue reading