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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

how could I even begin to praise you, you

who softly pulls me out of bed each day,

dear gatherer of dreams, gentle usher,

returning what we were sure

was lost. you arrive whispering

of birdsong, gifts of morning star,

illuminating secret mist

in mountain arms.

tell me, life bringer, is there even a word

for this slow blazing, this impossible door

opening to light?

it might be hope. more likely,

a miracle.

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Kaitlin Curtice's avatar

Secret mist in mountain

arms 😭😭🥹🥹 that’s so beautiful

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

I’m so thankful for these prompts, this is such a gift you are sharing. I absolutely loved your poem this morning.. the loving mother waking us from sleep.

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

I love Kaitlin's idea that poetry can be/is a prayerful and sacred practice - and in this vein, this poem is such a beautiful supplication! Thank you for sharing with us kate 💜

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

I LOVE the word supplication

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Me too!!

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Jane Anderson's avatar

Beautiful! Love the imagery.

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

the gentle usher, whispering of birdsong - I am picturing her, Dawn

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Christian Totty's avatar

I love the phrasing of "this impossible door." Gorgeous poem!

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Katie Spring's avatar

"returning what we were sure / was lost."

Kate, this is so gorgeous! I read it out loud twice to feel it even more ❤️

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

I’m so happy you’re here, I am in love with your poetry!! I

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Katie Spring's avatar

And i’m in love with yours! 🥰

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Celeste Zenko's avatar

Everything you write is so sensual, I can feel it on my skin. The secret mist.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is so beautiful, Kate. Your lively poem took me to a higher and brighter place. Thank you.

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Dawn has never met sunset,

nor even the rumor of it.

Dawn is the advent

of potential and expectation,

the chalkboard of all that is new.

Birthed by silence and light,

it elicits birdsong, critter dance,

creatures emerging from

caverns and nests, to welcome whatever will happen next.

My part is to be still,

and to present my offering

of awe and gratitude

on the altar of presence.

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Kaitlin Curtice's avatar

So gorgeous! Thank you!

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

thank you for responding. I often wonder if I am but hurling words into the void.

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

“nor even the rumor of it,” this made me smile with delight 🥹

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Thanks! Delight courtesy of Dwight.

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

Keep it coming 😅💘

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MeghanEBLin's avatar

Love those first two lines!! I like the chalkboard image too, full of possibilities.

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Thank you, Meghan!

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Christian Totty's avatar

Beautiful. Thank you!

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Jimmy's avatar

That opening line is gorgeous, thank you for that

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Thank you for thanking.

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Katie Spring's avatar

Dwight, I love this so much! Full heart and body resonance ❤️

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Thank you, Katie!

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Kai Meredith Goodman's avatar

‘Birthed by silence and light’

Beautiful! I really felt this.

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Thank you, Kai.

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Nicole Boehrig's avatar

A new thought

A fresh page

Turning, turning of the world

Wiped clear the slate of our collective mind

Sprinkles fresh inspirations

Whispers of possibility

A day untainted

By harms, haunts or hurry

A moment

To

Pause

A breathe in with the possibility of

Again.

We are here.

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

the day untainted is the beauty of dawn. Thank you for this!

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Christian Totty's avatar

I love the rhythm of "a fresh page" and "clear the slate." Thank you for this.

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Nicole Boehrig's avatar

Thank you Christian.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

I like this Nicole. Your poetry really touches me and brings me hope. “Whispers of possibilities” @wiped clear the state of our collective mind” and so many lines forming a cohesive and beautiful song so full of poetic brilliance’

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Kai Meredith Goodman's avatar

Oh I love this, Nicole. Beautiful.

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Nicole Boehrig's avatar

Thank you so much Kai Meredith 🫶🏼

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A. Wilder Westgate's avatar

The day is breaking,

cracking open like my heart,

like the tree that fell in my back yard,

making a way for everything that follows.

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Katie Spring's avatar

Beautiful ❤️ I love the way breaking and cracking become an opening

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Tracie Nichols's avatar

Lovely images!

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

“The day is breaking, cracking open like my heart.” That is almost wonderful beginning, blending beautifully with your ending.

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Claire's avatar

Dawn

My favourite time of day

The gentleness

And stillness

As the world slowly wakes

As the light returns

Creation sings

Full of promise

And hope

A chance to start again, again

The unfolding.

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

the unfolding of promise, love this!

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Christian Totty's avatar

This poem sings. Thank you.

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MeghanEBLin's avatar

I love the word gentleness here, and also unfolding. <3

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Claire, this is such a sweet poem. It does sing with its lovely cadence. “Creation dings/full of promise/and hope. I am deeply moved by that. And, reading those lines in your beautiful poem, I know they are true.

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Trish Harris's avatar

I stepped gingerly into the arena.

The darkness made me gasp.

But I was determined to find my seat.

I stumbled and cut my knee as I fell. With blood trickling down my leg, I carried on.

And when I found my spot, sinking into its warm embrace, I knew I was home.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Very nice, Trish! Welcome home!

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Katie Spring's avatar

Dawn is an invitation

I say yes to

over and over

I wish I could stay

in her softness, where

the world is at peace

under a peach-blue sky

Give me just a few more minutes

a button not to snooze

but to extend this

waking

Birdsong and tea

my breath deepening

the cat stretching

the light reaching

to welcome us into

a new day

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

Not to snooze but to extend this waking 💔 oh my goodness. this tender praise.

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Ditto.

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

“… a button not to snooze but to extend this waking…” YES!

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

deepening...stretching...reaching...into the new day!

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Christian Totty's avatar

Yes, yes, yes to "a button not to snooze but to extend this waking."

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Kai Meredith Goodman's avatar

Ditto again! I wish for that button every morning! You have so beautifully captured my own feelings about dawn, Katie. (Although it’s coffee and a dog for me!)

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Katie Spring's avatar

I tried to fit my dog in the poem, but she always goes back to sleep until I've finished my tea 😊

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Katie, this is beautiful. @Fawn is an invitation” is a remarkable first line, and serves to invite me into the poem with you “where/the world is at peace/under a peach blue sky”. What fascinating and lively imagery. Thank you for your invitation to read!

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j.h.kucher's avatar

Perambulation

I've developed the habit

of greeting the dawn

while walking the streets of my neighborhood.

Stepping out in the dark,

It's the birds,

the flowers,

the trees and me.

They seem to understand my journey

In a deeply molecular way.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

I love “in a deeply molecular way!” Nice work!

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Chuck's avatar

Even when i want

a little bit more darkness

Dawn shows up. How rude.

.

.

.

.

.

(words wandered in after my sister did not wake up feb 11)

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

What a sweet, tender poem, Chuck. I am very sorry about your sister. Prayers and peace are with you. 🙏🏻

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A. Wilder Westgate's avatar

Sending love to you in your grief, Chuck.

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

It dawned on me the other day

That I can change the script.

The words are mine to write.

Letters, syllables, words

All used before in other ways

Are mine to hold in this array.

It dawned on me when I sat still

that I can shift the ending

To my beginning

That brings my pieces into alignment

Change the arrangement

Of gutturals and fricatives

Till it sounds just right.

It dawned on me when I read the news

That words unordered into chaos

Can be reformed into a poem

That tells of wild gerania

Along the rocky path

That lift their heads

To kiss the dewdrops of dawn.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is sweet, Margaret! Shifting “the ending to your beginning” is brilliant. Thank you for such a beautiful and hopeful poem!

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

Thank you, Larry!

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Karen Mawyer's avatar

Dawn - A Mind Map

Dawn

Dawning

Dawned

It dawned on me

"By the dawning's new light"

Waiting for the dawn

Dark before the dawn

"And the darkest hour is just before the dawn"

"The night and the day are both alike"

"In Him there is no darkness at all"

"And there will be no more night"

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is so very lovely and creative, Karen!

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Karen Mawyer's avatar

Thanks, Larry.

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Really loving the queitude and intentionality this practice is bringing to my days thus far 💜

Sacred Bear

I sense you there -

Wisdom in the dark.

Dawn is come,

And for some

Wisdom it does spark.

But for me

I feel - I see -

I must rest here longer.

Sacred Bear

Models care;

I'll wait 'til I am stronger.

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

Sacred bear I sense you there 💔

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

I love the rhythm of this!

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Thank you Margaret ☺️

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Christian Totty's avatar

This feels so tender. I love "I must rest here longer." Thank you for sharing.

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Tender is right Christian 💜

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MeghanEBLin's avatar

Yessss, I love the invitation to rest longer. Lovely.

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Such an important one to tune into, right Meghan? 💜

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Sarah, this is so much fun and so attuned to the rhythms of our spirits and bodies. I love the notion of a sacred bear!

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Me too Larry!

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Nancy E. Holroyd, RN's avatar

As dawn quietly unfolds,

the air shimmers

with wispy tendrils

of mist.

The sky lightens slowly

hampered by dull gray clouds.

Hovering in the mist are birds

calling to each other

over the forest tree tops,

Chip, chip cheeri-oo

Chip, chip cheeri-oo.

A baby cries,

a mother wakens,

Another day has begun.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is so sweet and hopeful, Nancy! Thank you!

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Kaitlin, I love this prompt, and all your prompts! Dawn is so special, having just come the imagined and metaphorical dawn of Easter and all that may entail, and loving the dawn time when all seems right again. I smiled and laughed at your poetic description of trying to rouse your son, and said “yes!” Our youngest, too, could be a challenge to bring to the day and it stretched our creativity, especially on school days. And your shift into the beauty of the dawn of a new day brings me hope that we will emerge into a new dawn that is brighter the shadows of our current nightfall as a nation.

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Aaron R Wolcott's avatar

Dawn

Through branches, soft light

Appoints a new beginning;

Watch the bees take flight.

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Korie's avatar

The dawning of anything

Is bright and new,

Hopeful and open,

Yielding the fruit

Of anticipation…

Where might this dawning lead?

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kate gardiner clearlight's avatar

🥹🥲🙏 where might this dawning lead… this gives me chills in the best way.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Very nice, Korie! I like your question : “where might this dawning lead?” Let us know where it leads you!

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