Reduction
Simmering on a back burner
Evaporating
Diminishing
To concentrate flavor
And thicken the broth or sauce
Aging, chronic illness, plus the pandemic
Reducing me
Refining is painful
Simmering on the back burner is no fun
Pruning makes me sore
Yet
Hopeful to become
More truly who I am
A thicker, more flavorful me
Let it continue
Grow and stretch
Let the trials
The isolation
Turn me into
A highly concentrated glaze
A viscous
Honey or roux
May this new year
Show the fruit of what we have learned
from the troubles and sorrows of the passing year
How we need each other
Always have, but somehow
Lost sight of our connection
To each other
To our earth home
To our heaven coming down home
May the fire
The flood
The hurricane force winds
The pandemic
Be used
To strengthen and straighten the bent and broken
Places in our hearts
To repair and renew
The moral compass
of all, including
The powers that rule
The powers that have crushed
The powers arising
Replacing the old
Bringing the new
Until, until
“The kingdom of this world
becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” *
How long
How long
How we long for that day
© 2020 Julie Clark
(*Revelations 11:15)
Even in a pandemic
You can be kind
You can listen
You can learn
You can watch as the sun sets
Changing the colors of the sky
The light changing in the tree tops
Beauty can still take your breath away
Even in a pandemic
You can remember
You can give thanks
You can listen to the bird song
And wonder at the many voices
You can pray
You can vote
You can change
© Julie Clark 2020
Blooms and thorns
Outside my window
Growing on the same branch
Wheat and weeds
Outside my door
Seeds blowing on the same wind
Which will I choose to focus my attention
Who do I want to be
Do I want to be kind and loving
Or indifferent and uncaring
All this growing together
In our hearts
In our world
Intertwined
The world turns
Seasons change
What will we see
In the next season
After this pandemic
It seems we get a restart
Will we be a better world
Will we be better people
Or doom ourselves
Once again
I have read
Love triumphs evil
Light pushes out the darkness
Good wins over injustice
Shall we join
This hard work
Turn the soil and plant
The good seeds
Turn our weapons
Into plows
Our despair
Into faith and good deeds
Julie Clark
Backfromtheborderlands's Blog 