for toronto’s reset retreat centre

only some hold
both pleasure and
storm
despair nothing
known
and find
consolation
in the laughter
a labour of love:
forgives,
everything
allowing
compassion through a
healing act
where i come to rest
offers solace
sheltered from dissonance
it invites me to become the noise
the hush and hum
the stillness
and all the spaces
in between our memoirs
and eulogies
in the maddening
chaos,
forbidden
diaries subscribe to
an ethos of
care
intimacies
that touch every
word
you once
meant to say
but couldn’t
tenderly release
them into the
disorientation
of
this
dark matter
when you return to the
frontier
give my regards
to kindred spirits
waiting on the other side
to rejoice in
pockets of joy
and connected struggles
if there’s one thing
i’ve learned
during my brief encounter
with
the stranger,
the self,
with god
eternally revolving
in fleeting
moments:
at once,
mysterious
and captivating
it’s that,
to live in community
is to deeply understand
the plural of us.
lh
may 2022