A poem a day for 2013 - day 331 - For her

While driving last night
Late in the night
Late in the night with my family
My mother
My niece, my son
I saw a woman
Standing on the railing of a bridge
Holding onto a light pole
Light
Holding best as she could
Thinking
About...

I screamed
My niece
My son
My mother

We pulled to the side to say prayer for the woman
On a bridge
On Wardlow
Above the flood control
A black woman
With the saddest eyes I have ever seen

Wait, I screamed
I love you, was all I could think to say

My mother called the police
Who showed up
Thank God
In the name of sweet Jesus
Thank God

Wait, I said
I love you
Was all I could think to say

NaNoWriMo - day 27 - Family

At peace in praise and thanksgiving for family. For long drives. Warm hearts. Shared blood. Us.

A poem a day for 2013 - day 330 - Praise

My heart open
These hands
Fingers spread
Head lifted
In love

NaNoWriMo - day 26 - Sunny. Santa Monica.

An easy walk today with much inside my head and V by my side. Blessings abound. Peace is present.

A poem a day for 2013 - day 329 - Yours truly

Dear life:
Yes

Gratitude

I am thankful for this day
For my health and strength
For love
For my son
Friends
Family
I am thankful for clean air and blessed walk in Santa Monica with V
I am thankful for busses that run frequently
For easy
For life

NaNoWriMo - day 25 - Thinking about Catherine

Catherine who was most known to her family as NeNe passed away Saturday night. This morning and most of the day I thought about how she would say "Beautiful are the hands that do / things that are / honest, kind and true." She had more poems and songs in her head at eighty-nine then I do at forty-four. She will be missed and thought of frequently.

A poem a day for 2013 - day 328 - For Catherine

Sending rest in peace love to Catherine who lived her life and loved her family
Who kissed trees and flowers and hugged her pets
Who kissed my hands and cheeks
And loved coffee with sugar and cream
Rest well
Fly about
Know that you are in the hearts and minds of many

Messages about Red Stories last night

 "Dearest Jaha, what an amazing event that was. What a privilege to be there. Thank you thank you thank you. The high vibrations from Food and Socks are still in my field now. Their conversation was the glowing heart of the evening, and in itself would have been extraordinary. But what lifted the whole to even beyond that was the totality, and you as the weaver of it all, the spinner and weaver of words and stories and people, the rough, sad words of the everyday alongside the sublime, all there together on the program. As indeed, all of that, all of that, hums alive in your poetry and presence. (I know you have a poetry blog, which I haven't been going to recently, but will again. What is the link? And are the two poems you read last night there?) I don't think I've made New Year's Resolutions since I was a teenager, and am not going to start again now – but if I were to make a New Year's Resolution for 2014, it would be, to go to Red Stories every month without fail ... Congratulations and Blessings for the third anniversary, and for all that is to unfold in the months and years to come."

Michelle Gubbay

• 

  "Oh sweet Jaha... your Red Stories are becoming legend... we need you so much... thank you for me being that part that sits on the edge & wiggles my toes in the Red water checking for undercurrent integrity in spirit... ahhh, you know what I mean... xoxo"

  
  Riverdia 

Easy like morning

Gratitude

I am thankful for this day
Thankful for waking up easily and happily
For a wonderful evening celebrating the third anniversary of Red Stories last night
I am thankful for peace
For my community who supports me
For my family and friends
I am thankful for a new chapter in my life
Thankful for my son
Thankful that God guides and protects him
For my niece and nephew
For love and forgiveness
I am thankful that God has already worked it out
That there is no it too big for God

Red Stories 3 yr anniversary with Food4Thot and Queen Socks