Wings

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

Who are we on the other side

of ourselves when nothing

is recognizable?

I had names, places, and

stories. They seemed like

important things, then.

What love outlasts loss?

What love emerges after

it all?

The very same feet that are

walking away are walking

toward, something.

Oh, but there are these

wings.

© 2019/Jamie K. Reaser

From "Truth and Beauty" (a work in progress)

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Get Your Feet Wet

Art: Mark Collins
https://markcollinsfineart.com/

Life requires us to get our feet wet. It’s

an ongoing process, like it or not, of

trying something new and deciding

what it makes of us:

First steps

First words

Peas

At some point, a first kiss.

It’s an aspect of living. Actually, I think

it’s the difference between living and

living a life. 

So, what does one make of a box turtle

standing in a big puddle left by days of rain?

Certainly, you can conclude, she knows that

she was designed to be a terrestrial thing.

There are at least twenty-five years of

this understanding inscribed on her back.

So, is it possible that she’s simply getting

her feet wet? Maybe she wanted to try on

what it’s like to be a pond turtle? Maybe

a duck? An otter, perhaps.

Good for her, I think.

And, I also think, wouldn’t it be nice to

imagine that tomorrow she tries out

something else totally new to her?

Wild.

I think she will.

(c) 2019/Jamie K. Reaser
From a book collaboration in progress with artist Mark Collins

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A Time to Rest

Art: Mark Collins
https://markcollinsfineart.com/

Her beak, tucked under thick wing.

Her eyes, shut to daylight.

The spring-sweet magnolia and

hemlock boughs holding space.

~

We must give ourselves permission to rest,

to engage with the gentleness of spirit

that resides in that place between doing

and being. Softly. Shhhh. Quiet now.

Nothing is wrong. Let it alone. All of it.

You have already been there and made

your way here. Let quietude provide

cover and be your attentiveness.

Here is exhaustion’s antidote.

Here is blessed resilience.

Here is the imagination looking

out and looking in for that which

will restore the whole heartedness

necessary for your next rising.

I can promise you that there is something

alive in this black-lit void just waiting

for all of the other voices to fall silent so

that you will meet your next breath,

and love yourself again.

~

I didn’t disturb her, the owl.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

From a book collaboration project with artist Mark Collins

A Time to Rest was exhibited in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson 

Art Museum’s 44^th annual Birds in Art show

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