10/27/20
Inspired by an incredibly talented woman
(from Wei’s post)
Quietly watching
the light come back
into the world
In midst of these times
patient
if not trusting
willing to wait and see
before jumping headlong
into the dark uncertainty
Find some ground
plant feet firmly
You are that ground
for me
And you out there
are the ground for somebody
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2020
An offering from my poetic journal.
November Sunset, M D Mikus, Copyright 2018
Am I absolved
because I knew
about these things,
but could do nothing?
Nothing except feel
and write,
nothing except speak
with passion,
nothing except send
healing energy,
nothing except vote
my conscience,
nothing except to be
in the world a woman of peace.
But I could not stop
atrocities, I could not
heal wounds deep,
inflicted by leaders
blind to the consequences
of their actions.
No, I could not do these things…
and yet I continue walking
from one day to the next,
I continue breathing,
and if I am still living
it must be for some reason.
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2004
From my CD, Full Blooming: Selections from a Poetic Journal.
It seemed especially true for me today. Perhaps you too.
Listen here for my poem reading on my Full Blooming CD
Shortly after we dropped our daughter off at her new college dorm she asked if I missed her. In response I sent her the 14 poems I had written to help me cope with her leaving. Later these poems became the seed that grew into my book Letting Go and New Beginnings: A Mother’s Poetic Journey.I also included the poems from when her older brother went off to college and photographs I took of the campus. I realized that when one phase of life ends, another begins and those poems are part of the story as well.
I thought it was finished in 2006, but more poems came when our two children returned home like many of their generation. All of us were adjusted to our separate lives and had to adjust to living together. And then, once again, the leaving.
It is a mystery why certain poems pop into my head years later, but this one has been quite insistent lately. Perhaps it is the opening lines…
For you, here is this poem from Letting Go and New Beginnings:
2/24/08
Constantly
I am watching out for you.
Even when I am not watching,
I am watching.
I cannot say why this is true
or when it began,
it feels like forever
my love.
So do me a great favor
and become…not less carefree
nor less careless,
nor even more careful,
for being full of care
is not it exactly.
Be more aware of your choices,
more in tune with your inner wisdom.
For you are wise
dear one.
And if I am selfish
and want you to stay with me
when it is clearly time to go,
forgive…
and go.
Call me when you arrive.
I will be waiting.
Margaret Dubay Mikus
Copyright 2008
For a dear friend (and me)
To let yourself
be yourself
even encourage those aspects
that have been hidden
to come into the sun
even those facets you thought
you could reveal to no one.
To baptize the whole
with kindness
that is enough
you are enough
on your chosen journey
of loving acceptance.
Be gentle and kind to you as if
you were someone else.
Remember you cannot give
from your essence
depleting your core strength
but only from your excess.
So practice just this one thing:
self-kindness
to build the reserves
from which you can draw
in service.
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2014
This poem ends my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. It has been popping into my head for a week, so here it is. For me to remember…and maybe you too?
THROWN AGAIN into the FRAZZLE MACHINE: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing
4/14/20
Another day
another news briefing
depending on who says
the weight of it all
heavy or heavier
in the daily fog
of uncertainty
I am choosing
and again and again
to mostly not listen
not in denial
head in the sand
but in determination
to not drown
Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2020
Every day trying to find the balance between knowing enough, but not too much. Perhaps you too?
