a thank you for you — and your light — Thank you, dear readers Heaven’s manna, being heard You are Grace and Feast — dark Before now crystal caves echoing flames of Afters ©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2021 I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a crystal cave ever since I read Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave when I was 14…

Take a walk with me… — “In the end, we’re all just walking each other home.” Ram Dass The above quote says it all for me. I could so easily make it my entire bio…Except I suspect Quy Ma expects a bit more out of me than this. (Insert smile emoji.)

Choosing to shed fear of loss — Choice is your greatest power. It is an even greater power than love, because you must first choose to be a loving person. Caroline Myss I fear loss, my quaking heart confided to the oaks and then Armillaria root rot found them. Loss is a handshake of daggers, my wary back cautioned…

Beethoven in bugs and birds — “Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastick toe.” John Milton in L’Allegro, 1632 Moonlit sonata underscoring with arpeggios starlit instrumental Day Incremental movements — off-beat, off key Conducted by owls Katydids tripping the light fantastic Musick is an old-fashioned spelling for the art form known as…

Muse as Life’s Stain Remover — A juice glass of red wine poised upon a bar of dark chocolate. Lamp light singing – moonlit muezzin from a minaret upon a nightstand. Hayya alas salah Come to prayer. Beseech and revere the One, the All, Song within the beams. Sun in a night shaded sky. Moon at noon. Trust…

The past un-pretzeled — My fuchsia dress I found folded and rolled like the pretzels he favored Like my doggedly contortionist soul finding no comfort in its crate, barking till even the neighbors down the street made comments Such a pernicious dough of twisted storylines he kneaded Such vile perversions of blessed sustenance* Pretzels…

Righting the art on my walls rather than writing — What’s up with this editing of my walls while high rises, bundled bungalows, crackled driveways, and parking garages of words clamor in capitals and 72-font for my attention Clutching the shins of my soul – toddlers whining, let’s go! Are we there yet? There, the Proper Place as poised as the…