A Poem: All the More

We have reason to live.

Perhaps it is the experience,
the sad twists of fate,

the risks of even living,
the precariousness of it –

even after the miracle
of getting here –

that causes us to see
it in its delicacy,

its transparent divinity,
its soap bubble vulnerability.

We have reason to live.

And that is why we still fall in love.
Conceive new beings.

Dream dreams.

That is why we hear each day
the many ways the sky could fall,

and look at it still in wonder,
thanking each new moon,

and thinking how,
if we were to lose it soon,

we would only love it the more.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
October 2022
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i do

we walk city
somewhere between noise and nature’s chaos
of leaf litter fumes and
birds of reclamation

your fingers slip beneath my
cuff
and moment stroke my pulse

we are both still
alive
somehow
despite the sadness

~ Mikaere Greenslade

(nb. I am slow at getting the body of my work up here on the web
for you to enjoy and use as you will, but bear with me)