These are some wild times in this wide world… And an opportunity to consider things…to notice. I’m trying to take a walk every day and to write as well. As I collect several pieces, I’ll put them together into a post. Haiku is not a regular form for me—the limitations and discipline is helpful these days—and an opportunity to express some measure of depth with brevity. Somehow all of that feels right for where my brain is now. The poem in the middle was written after I used the line about God shaking her head as a comment on a friend’s photo of a grocery store in SanFrancisco. She let me use the picture and the rest unfolded.

Let us lift our heads and look around with our minds, our hearts, and our spirit. We are not abandoned, we are not alone.

Haiku #1

I heard the spring birds

in the new day Gardens sing.

Breathe and be, gently.

Kimberly M. King, RSCJ

(Photo taken in a San Francisco grocery store by Irma Dillard, RSCJ)

What are you Offering? What do you Lack?

(Written for those who are hoarding and for those in need)

I can’t help but imagine

God is shaking her head,

God is shaking her head

and saying Would you please!

Look at where your neighbour stands

in need of what you have.

There IS enough—

because no one has it all.

Including you.

You are all made in my image

yet no one of you

is me.

I am me

in the birdsong,

the stars,

the eye

in the mirror

of glass.

What are you offering?

What do you lack?

What can you live without

to keep on believing

that denying your neighbour

will get you what you need?

I am still with you…

I am always with you…

Listen.

Kimberly M. King, RSCJ

Haiku #2

Shadows sunbathing,

patiently reminding

that evening passes.

Kimberly M. King, RSCJ