Ask for one wild word,
A portable convent.
In the desert what seems empty is actually full.
Can I let what isn’t essential or nourishing wither?
A portable convent —
What if I were as quiet and spacious as the desert?
Let what isn’t essential or nourishing wither,
Honor the gifts.
What if I were as quiet and spacious as the desert?
In the desert what seems empty is actually full.
Honor the gifts.
Ask for one wild word.
This poem was inspired by an invitation to create a pantoum in the book Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year by Christine Valters Paintner. She explains that the “French pantoum is a poetic form with a circular structure that comes from the ordered repetition of lines.” Following her suggestion, I re-read my journal for the month of December and copied down lines that shimmered for me, then put them together according to her template, so this is in a way a found poem — like a mandala made of driftwood collected on the beach.
The Kingdom of Enough 
What a beautiful poetic structure fiercely bringing back memories of our time in Joshua Tree!
Thanks again Mary for giving us something special today
Karen S
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It was wonderful sharing desert time with you!
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Well damn, you’ve done it again.
Opened a door I did not notice
into a view of the desert
that needed poetry to know.
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Wow, thank you! A child of the California coast, I’m amazed to discover that the desert draws me as much as the beach and the redwoods.
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hmm, interesting. I *think* I see what you are trying to do here but find it somewhat inaccessible. The notions of refuge, convent, wither, and wild (to me) seem not linked well enough to really draw me in or lead me ‘an essence’ you might be targeting. Word choice differences? Intriguing but (for me) does not cohere. Hope this is of some use.
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