MEANINGMAKER

poetry

  • women of a certain rage

    Women of a certain rage don’t know how things work. We don’t know why our mother didn’t have the language for what she carried. Why, as a kid, we wanted to know everything and then when we got older we… Continue reading

  • the last drive in

    Some of my best memories as a kid and a teenager live in the glow of summer nights at the drive‑in.  In the late ’70s, my big sister would swing by home, or Happy Hills Campground, to pick me up… Continue reading

  • summer of ‘26

    I’ll be skipping hot girl summer in exchange for…of course I have lines on my face look what joy has made of me summer/ yes only when I mean it summer/ write with my feet up on the porch summer/… Continue reading

  • cosmic parable

    Once in a while  a cosmic question is asked  as souls gather  before the beginning.  The collective consciousness asks:  Who will awaken us?   Who will hold up the mirror  to what we’ve been afraid to face,  who will stir the sleeping… Continue reading

  • they were always golden

    I got to hold babies and pet all the dogs. I got to fold warm laundry. Blow out birthday candles. Take naps. I got to walk down ordinary streets and notice beautiful things. Flower gardens. A child drawing galaxies in… Continue reading

  • 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