word choice another word for change is loss another word for loss is absence another word for absence is space another word for space is distance another word for distance is apart another word for apart is away another word for away is beyond another word for beyond is without another word for without is…
tidings Christmastide has ebbed and the waves of wonder that crashed against the sea walls of our hearts are slipping away trees go down lights go dim and it dawns on me tides don’t stop they come in one after another waves break just like hearts one after another we come and go oh tidings…
route map the four-gate airport in New Haven (travel-sized, my friend Mandy says) announced new routes to five cities and it made me wonder how many new connections I have made lately or what it means to be an airport even if it is only metaphorically a place of connection with lines arcing across the…
epiphany I’m working on a sermon about the saddled sages who were sane enough to follow stars and wise enough to ignore the king’s directions and find another way home I used to see a desert sky as their background but recent years have given me the view of rioters climbing Herod’s walls as the…
trash talking after staying up late to watch the ball drop and listen to musicians I didn’t recognize we did not need fireworks lightning lit up the sky and the rain fell like it was washing the world so far this morning I have fed pups drank coffee done Wordle (NERVE) and written these words…
role call were I to place myself in the story I think I would choose to be a shepherd who did not have to prepare a thing they simply abided watching sheep sleep until the angel choir burst into star song and sent them sprinting towards Bethlehem and then they went back to abiding that…
solstice sandwich today was the thinnest of daylight sandwiches the shortest distance between two darknesses last night it began to snow but it was another thinness icing across the landscape an inconsequential covering tonight is the thickest of nighttime sandwiches the widest distance between two daylights tomorrow the sun will rise and it will be…
chowder head I think coincidence and soup are synonyms both words mean to fall together it started with bacon that’s when I knew we were having chowder for supper I found potatoes and chopped clams even as I grabbed items as though I was gathering props for improv giving myself options I couldn’t see yet…
coffee shop duet what I saw first was her solitude as she sat on the bar stool matching the expression of the coffee shop’s blank wall but when he entered she turned and so did the light around her they greeted like good friends talking as they shuffled coats to make room for themselves he…
I could hear rain in mid-December days die incrementally losing light almost from the crack of dawn suffocate them with a blanket of clouds and the only light that lives is artificial still light is not life or so I was reminded when I realized I could hear the rain not just the storm but…