Advent of a Long Marriage

A swirl of grace like the wind
clears the way for what’s underneath,
swallows what seems beyond reach,
and a feeling of deep peace is left
in this commonplace space
where we’ve been anchored.

There is a softness, a slowness,
and familiarity gives off it own glow,
so we watch, stay awake,
the wise knower in each of us
heralding what grabs our attention.
We ponder what has pierced our souls,
forcing the bloom in winter.
There is room for it all.

We become aware how each act
in a long marriage
committed to patience,
hastens towards love,
unaware we were moving mountains.
And so we begin again, another day of visitations;
spirit revealing gifts, repairing wounds,
honoring the beauty in the broken.
We fall to our knees. We quake at the light.

Breathe Deep

While reading a meditation
on the necessity of holding onto wonder,
I mistook the word nuance for manure
which took me down a subtly different path
of the mundane and extraordinary;

diamonds in a dung heap,
flowers emerging from the foul,
and not a Watchmaker but a Gardener
who thought me, brought me
into being, from who knows what.

Undeniably we sense decay;
all that is unlovely in this world,
but if we pause, breathe deep,
we will perceive the beauty dropped
into every ordinary moment.

Angela Hoffman lives in Wisconsin. With her retirement from teaching and the pandemic coinciding, she took to writing poetry. Her poetry has been widely published. Angela’s collections include Hold the Contraries, forthcoming 2024, Olly Olly Oxen Free, 2023 (nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award), and Resurrection Lily, 2022 (Kelsay Books).