here's a poem i wrote when i was supposed to be writing the benediction for Sunday. I decided some parts worked in the benediction as well, so i used them for the blessing. i hope you are blessed in the space you are at today!







i used to talk to trees
sing, until their branches twitched in applause
(as if their purpose
was to raise little girls—)

they’d pull me up
to nest in their dreams;
fully embraced,
their breath became my own.

—love was our oath—

and i,
i’d hang from my knees
stretch for the depths of earth
and though my arms refused to root,
i was their own—
they twisted up my hair by their wind
drew me to sky upon their swing
tossed me bough to bough
until i became the laugh lost to land

—forever was a dream, for winter lay cold within them—

i pledged to grow wild beneath the might of oak,
plucking constellations as they sprung from the ground
stealing sun’s first kiss upon my nose
i opened my ache to the Planter of Souls
pressing in, to hear my name beating beneath the bark…

‘child’

yes, this is me,
claimed, freed: known.
i used to talk to trees—
Love was our oath

and i
i moved freely within it.