On Stands Now
October 2024

Questa  •  Red River  •  Cerro  •  Costilla  •  Amalia  •  Lama  •  San Cristobal

northern new mexico news boy
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A REQUEST

I ask you
To remember this.
There are more who love
Than those who hate.
There are more who care
Than those who don’t.
More who create
Than those who destroy.
They are a sleeping giant
To be aroused, to be reminded
That their compassion
Can heal the world.

————————————————

 

ENLIGHTENMENT

Enlightenment is not
What you think.
It is when the heart sings
And you can hear the music.
It is when your wings seek flight
And you are unafraid.
It is when you see and hold fast
To joy in the eyes of a beloved,
And when time stands still
For the moment’s benediction
Of eternity.

Linn Bayne
Reprinted with permission
from Scott Group Publishing

ENOUGH

This coffee’s close to perfect.

None of the bitterness
sometimes confused with strength
Such densely pleasurable savor
comes with knowing —
Enough beans ground fine,
drenched by
enough steaming water.
Enough milk to satisfy the tongue’s
desire for fatness.
Enough honey
to remind that sometimes
life is sweet.

The cat’s curled beside me
on the couch
this autumnal morning,
close enough for the comfort
of my body’s warmth.

The jealous dog has stretched her bulk
between couch and coffee table,
head at my feet, near enough
to be content.

On the other side of the window,
hummingbirds up early
zoom the feeder,
sip
with their impossible tongues
enough fuel
for the next leg
of the long journey

A thousand miles away
where it is still night,
on the other side
of the continental spine,
our grandchild lies snug
beneath his mother’s whooshing heart.

Any day now
the narrow way,
the mysterious migration,
the waiting hands,
the initial inspiration,
the primal separation –

Nine month’s home,
that place of water, blood and bone
and inexplicable gestation,
no longer large enough
to hold this life.

Deborah Pender Hutchison

Author