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Learning from the High Wire Walkers

June 28, 2026 by Rosemerry


 
 
First, they start close to the floor,
practice walking heel to toe, practice
bouncing and turning and gazing 
at a distant object instead of looking
down at their feet. As the stakes
and the rope get higher, they 
begin to practice failure. Practice
hanging from the wire for long
periods of time. Practice holding
their own weight. This. Perhaps 
this is what we are doing now 
with democracy. Practicing
how to hold up our weight. 
Don’t look down. Don’t look down. 
View it all as practice. Trust that balance
depends on tension. Trust that
every step matters.

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In the Junkyard of the Heart

June 27, 2026 by Rosemerry

all those feelings of brokenness
I tried to throw away
now shining in the starlight

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Hanging Out with the Benedictines

June 26, 2026 by Rosemerry


 

                  for Sister Roseann and the Monastic Congregation of St. Scholastica
 
On the left wrist of the nun 
with the silver hair and soft eyes
was a bracelet made by a child.
Small white cubes with black all caps
proclaimed, “NEVER GROW UP.”
With an impish shrug of her shoulders 
she explained she might have written
“NEVER GIVE UP.” And I thought 
how for fifteen hundred years
her order has flourished through
the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, 
The British Empire, the Aztecs, 
Bart Simpson, Mickey Mouse. 
Has grown through the introduction of zero
as a standalone number and paper money,
gunpowder and windmills and the compass. 
Has seen the creation of moveable type
and the steam engine, has witnessed 
the telegraph and email and bots that answer the phone.
And I felt it inside her, still growing,
the devotion of centuries, the kind of faith 
that lives on past plastic bracelets,
cherry Twizzlers and Instagram, a community
grown in the deep, rich soil of humility, 
simplicity, hospitality, moderation and prayer.
I felt it in her open smile, in the
kind way she held my hand in hers,
in the way she reframed her work
as faithfulness, I felt her trust
that some things continue to prosper
against all odds, this, the gift of never 
growing up, of never giving up, 
of ever growing beyond understanding.

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While Standing in the Field of Fireflies

June 25, 2026 by Rosemerry


she felt the gift 
of her own darkness
how it uplifts
even the smallest light
as treasure

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Forgive Me For Wanting to Soothe 

June 24, 2026 by Rosemerry



Sometimes a wound must stay a wound.
—James Crews, “Wound”


Sometimes I remember a wound
must stay a wound. Why then, 
this impulse to bring you a vase of blue 
larkspur, white lilies and a blessing
instead of sitting with you in the dark
and letting what is dark be dark. 
When I am brave enough to see
beyond my longing to soothe, 
all I want is to be with you in the dark. 
To steep together in the uncomfortable ache. 
To quietly meet you in the wounded place
so you know you are not alone.
Perhaps I will always send you lilies, 
but let me also trust how necessary it is, 
the open ear, this tenderness, 
this willingness to be with,
more gift than any flower.

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As It Is

June 23, 2026 by Rosemerry


 
 
I see them everywhere, hearts.
In cumulous clouds and sunflower leaves. 
In thinly sliced strawberries 
and the dark hollow of a split hickory nut. 
I see them in white bird shit splatted on a bench, 
these symmetrical kissing curves 
designated as an ideograph for love. 
And how many hundreds of heart rocks 
have I slipped into my pockets to bring home 
like sedimentary and igneous proofs 
of love manifest in matter. 
I don’t know when I stopped collecting
the rocks, finding more joy in picking 
them up and displaying them trailside 
so others could delight in them, too. 
Later, I took pictures of the hearts 
where I found them, wanting not to disturb, 
perhaps trusting that love shows up 
exactly where it is needed most. 
Now, when I see them, 
I will most likely smile to myself 
as I walk by, no longer needing 
to stockpile or keep a record. 
Still, it surprises me every time, 
the joy of loving things just as they are, 
the joy of leaving things whole. 
 

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In Evening Light

June 22, 2026 by Rosemerry


 
 
She lets us touch her neck, her back, that beautiful,
old, black mustang. Cautiously, we flank her
and stroke her taut sides, our hands full of praise.
Her large gray eyes droop. She begins to drool.
Joe laughs, saying she is so at ease 
she is about to fall asleep. 
I am thinking of how every morning I take
calcium, B-vitamins, drink water with lemon,
believing small daily habits make a big difference
over time. Perhaps it is the same with awe—
spending even a few moments a day touching
something greater than we are will eventually
change who we are inside. I believe that tonight, 
moved as I am by the surprising softness of her hips, 
the trust she conveys with her stillness, my palm 
moving slowly against her side. Her ease becomes 
my ease as I watch my daughter rest her forehead 
on the mustang’s withers. The great being’s trust 
becomes my trust as the sunset turns 
the whole world to amber, to gold. 

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Homeopathy

June 22, 2026 by Rosemerry


 
 
In the morning,
I light the candles.
With each light, 
I say the names.
Each name represents
a blessing that became 
a wound that became again
a blessing. This is how 
the heart makes of its losses 
a salve, touching again 
and again the dark
with its own dark, then
adding the smallest of lights 
until light is what a heart
does.

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Different Paths

June 20, 2026 by Rosemerry


 
 
It used to annoy me, 
the way my husband
cleans every trail
he walks on, slowing 
down to kick off the 
smaller rocks, 
stopping to pick up 
and toss the larger ones.
Every. Single. Rock.
Perhaps it still annoys
the part of me that loves
a heart pumping pace,
but now I honor how 
he has chosen this one 
small act as one way
he can serve the world.
But if he could, on our daughter’s
paths, pick up all the obstacles,
I don’t think he would. 
Such a gift for a father to give:
An open hand and heart that says
I will pick you up if you fall.
An open hand and heart that says
I trust you enough 
to let you stumble at all.
 

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One Becoming

June 19, 2026 by Rosemerry


 
moment so honest
I put down the pen
and let myself be written.

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