On Afternoons Like This

Friends,

Welcome to The Liminality Journal! Subscribing to The Liminality Journal gives you access to some of my original poetry, which often doesn’t make its way into my books or other publications.

Here’s a poem I recently wrote called On Afternoons Like This, reflecting on one of my favorite times of the day: afternoon rest time. If you’d like to hear a recording of me reading the poem, click the audio player above. Hope you enjoy it.

On afternoons like this one,

I trace the lines of our one-hour rest time,

wondering how much

it will stretch past us.

I wonder if rest is an enigma

or the most simple thing we

embody as humans.

We might nap,

the kids building with LEGO bricks

while listening to that audiobook

for the hundredth time.

We might wait here in bed,

letting the sheets and blankets

get warmer, letting

the sunlight slip slowly

across the window’s curtains.

We might drink one last

cup of coffee,

naming our dreams

again and again.

One hour, and we’ve

drawn a shape

that may not make sense

to anyone but us.

It is the shape of a bird in flight,

of a house held still,

of a beautiful child

dancing in sunlight.

It is the shape of God or

God’s breath,

the shape of nothing

and everything.

It is the shape of us,

what we needed

in the stillness and space,

what we needed

when all the world

went quiet around us.

Don’t forget, most of my writing will remain free, because I believe that sharing my words with all of you is what creates this community. For free subscribers, you’ll still get access to my essays and some original poetry.

But if you’d like to subscribe for a paid account, you’ll get access to the following:

• a look into my life as an essayist and poet

• participate in discussion threads with me

• glimpses into notes from my personal journals

Onward, friends.