A Daily Dose of Poetry

A Hundred Falling Veils

• Vigil February 18, 2026
  In the growing dark we stood on the courthouse stepswith our candles lit and our voices soft and we sang,Hold on, hold on, my dear ones, here comes the dawn.And as we sang, someone read the names of those who diedin the custody of ICE or were killed by ICE. Tien Xuan Phan.Isidro Perez. Johnny […]
  Rosemerry
• The Art of Tragedy February 17, 2026
    When was the first time you knewyou would never be loved for who you are?The first time you knew you would disappointeveryone when you dared to show upas yourself? I think of Camille Claudelin her white frock, the lacy one she was forcedto wear. Her mother’s anger whenyoung Camille would return from the woods,mud-joyously smudged, […]
  Rosemerry
• Self-Portrait as Cat Pillow February 16, 2026
    Each time the cat leaps uponto the bed, she makesa small bright sound.I love this sound. Love knowingthat soon her warm weightwill curl into or on top of my belly.It’s addictive as the chimeof an incoming text.Seductive as short sleevesand the firm curve of biceps.My greatest achievement—more prized than title or degree—is when my cat […]
  Rosemerry
• Everywhere February 15, 2026
    Tenderness pierces the heartthe way a bright stream of sunlightpierces evening clouds,the way the green stem of garlicpierces cold spring soil.It pierces the heart the way protestsfor justice pierce silence.If anyone asks, where does it hurt,the truest answer is everywhere.If anyone asks, where can I findbeauty enough to make me weep,the answer is the same.
  Rosemerry
• Acceptance February 14, 2026
   As wet loves the waves,as dark loves nightas white loves snowas a bell loves the strikeas a wing loves air,as the shout loves the earas silence loves silencelet me love what is here.
  Rosemerry
• Every fortress I have ever built February 13, 2026
    around my heart has come down.Oh sure, I’ve rebuilt them with stonesof indifference. Stones of distraction.Stones of unwillingness to see and be seen.I’ve rebuilt the fortresses again. Again.But then come flames of heartbreak.Cannons of loss. The triple promisesof entropy, gravity and time. And at last,too exhausted to lift the stones again,I shiver with the cold […]
  Rosemerry
• Today’s Headline February 12, 2026
    And then one day, while I readaloud to my husband the newsand felt the widening hole in my heart,he raised his hand to quiet me.I followed his gaze out the windowto see in the yard a small fluffy thingwith black and white eyespots on its head.A northern pygmy owl beside our door,stout body slightly smaller […]
  Rosemerry
• The Spreading February 11, 2026
   There’s a place in my brain where hate won’t grow.—Naomi Shihab Nye, “Jerusalem”  Sometimes a seed of compassionslips into my brain and lands in a placewhere before only anger could grow.These seeds appearwhen I stop seeing humansas only our actions and startseeing all of us as walking wounds.They appear when I see othersfinding ways to be […]
  Rosemerry
• Cast of Millions February 10, 2026
  There, on the dream marquis,in big black all capswere three words:DEAR PEOPLE DARE.I stood on the dream sidewalkstaring up into the vastdream dark and thought,someone made a movieabout tenderness—real people finding courageto offer love and careto those who are wounded.Which is all of us.That’s when I woke,determined to auditionfor that show every dayfor the rest […]
  Rosemerry
• Practicing Presence February 9, 2026
    and this, too,this calling of chickadees,and this, too,this buzzing of flies,and this, too,this memory from last year,and this, too,this tending to right here,and this, too,this softening of my jaw,and this, too,this ache in my gut,and this, too,this turning toward now,and this, too,this reaching for more,and this, too,this throbbing tenderness,and this, too,this all of this,and this, […]
  Rosemerry