This poem has been hanging around in my drafts since I published The Song of Falling Stars back win February. It seemed appropriate to post it now that we are in the confines of home-stay and the longing to be free in the world is cracking us open. Whose hand do you long to feel in yours again? What if this time were a chance to unbreak our broken hearts, to reclaim our innocent eyes and look again at those we love with fresh eyes?

Given these strange times of isolation and social distancing from a worldwide pandemic, it is important to remember that the heart can reach beyond walls and borders and that we can hold those we love in our hearts and minds even when we are apart.

Happy Valentine’s Day! May a river of laughter flow between you and those you love and may your hearts go and go and go to each other!

Poetry has the capacity to enter the heart, to touch you on a deep and enduring level because it invites you into the world of your making. The Latin root of poet means “maker,” or “creator.” True poetry is co-created between the writer and the reader! Who is co-writing your life with you?

Perhaps the greatest challenge in the state of our union, especially given how our political dialogue has degraded into demonizing the other side, is to find some way to rise above or get beyond divisiveness in our rhetoric and to hold a space in our hearts that invites genuine and respectful dialogue. This poem asks the Twilight: “Why do we cast the world in light and dark?”