The Love of a Dog

May you sleep the sleep of my old dog,

soft, yielding and unquestioning.

 

May peace sift through your body

like a whisper, riding on the white fur

of a dog's love.

 

May you receive the adoration

you need, the saintly love of canines,

unceasing:  forward, backward and right now,

 

ready to guide you through the Mystery

and all the joy and grief dogs already understand 

in every snuffle in their body.

 

J. Pratt-Walter, 2/16/2024

invisible marks love leaves, 1 and 2

FIRST POEM

this is how 

love makes invisible marks

on the vivid heart

beyond the heart,

 

how our hallelujah blood

hallows, --o joy—everything!

two of us evolving to    a single

legs-arms-necks-lips knotwork

passion of starved skin, these hands

an untimid touch

these breasts     was pink ever so pink?

i am drawn and colored

everywhere by your love-

artistry

 

eyes become sighs and breathe yes,

our story still plays inside me

nothing but you, eyes like springtime

 

even your homely feet wear

my love stamped into their soles

from the ancestors to me to you,

glorious day of days!  is any day!

holding dearly you inside it

 

j. pratt-walter, 2/13/2024

SECOND POEM 

make

the heart

everything

 

passion

pink-colored

artistry

 

sighs

yes

 

nothing

but you

love

 

glorious

dearly

you

 

j. pratt-walter 2/14/24

Together

This is the sacrament of being together

in our shared time.  This is it. This is real.

Nothing extraneous, no barriers.

Nothing craved and nothing missing.

    

      Just water, sky and land

      and how the world lifts birds

      to flight. Just soil and rain reviving

      a parched earthworm and tending

      all the dropped seeds, all the daylight words

      I hold for you right here in my workaday hands,

      no worries or blame to intrude,

    

only the remarkable grace of two beings leaning

into each other like this.  We smile and take

a slow breath, knowing that we recognize

a sacrament when we’re in it.

 

J. Pratt-Walter, © 2024

. . .near-spring

how?  in the glitter-snow and

     iron-ice no warmly

but world-tilt    sun-milk

     below arrowhead stars,

a small simmer

.

how? earthworm snout

     starts her plow, tilling the yarn

of earth with her gut.

    sky drip behind the untils,

until a code robin sings and

.

now o patient seed labor open

    . . .thy husk

now in the hunger of animals

     eggs unroll into flower buds

fallingly into almost near-

     . . .spring

j. pratt-walter, © 2024