
Merry Christmas!

We stand prominent
Overlooking and
Overlooked
Peaks peeking in the distance
While the sky watches closely
As we reach upward
Infinite embrasure
Larger inside
Than outside
I’m talking about creativity, vulnerability, and living a fully realized creative life on this episode of Wendy Says Things!
Give it a listen, hit that like button, and share far and wide.
Thank you so much for supporting me, and for being patient while I’ve been settling into a new life after moving!
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Feverish, I had walked through the heat
Antibiotics to fight the battle within me
Waited for me at a counter
I had never been there
And walked passed the stairs
What kind of drugstore has an upstairs
The security person redirected me
I got my medicine and looked around
Finding readers
I took them downstairs with me
After looking to see in every corner
What I might need in the future
It’s within walking distance
Easy to get to
Easy to pass by there coming or going
From the campus, the park, the wherever
Security guy approached
You don’t want to buy those here
He said as I looked at the set of colored pencils
In a back corner
I worked security and loss prevention
I know what he’s thinking
It’s the middle of the work day
I have a visible tattoo and wild hair
And a feverish sheen
From the fever
I’m in a back corner holding a paper bag
With my prescription in it
And readers he thinks I can’t afford
After having moved swiftly through
Every high value (and low value) area
Of the store
He gently takes them from my hand
The readers
I walk with him away from the colored pencils
He is a hero saving the store from theft
In his mind
And he has in reality thwarted the sale of both the readers
And the colored pencils
I let him play out his story
“I thought they were like just $3.”
I tell him
I’m feverish, but not above a little fun
We walk back upstairs where he shows me
The prices
“I must have been looking at the strength and thought
it was the cost”
I tell him
Go to another store, he names a competitor
You can get them there for less
I wonder if his managers know he is throwing sales away
He will tell them he prevented theft
I leave frustrated with no readers
Which I need if I’m to go swimming with one of my friends
And wear my contacts
No colored pencils to shade in my drawings
Full of regret and longing but needing to rest
And take my medicine and cool off
My roommate dropped by there a few days later
What did you need here? she texted
I tell her where the colored pencils are in the store
She brings home a 3-pack of readers too
Because we both need them at times
My fever is gone
The pencils are treasured now
And that guy, he may never know
How close he was to something wonderful
Someone valuable
He may never know that things are not always
What they seem
That sometimes we need readers
To see clearly
Sooner rather than later
Even if the cost is a little more
There’s a story in the rings
Of lean years
And times of plenty
Some years you get
And some years you give
You lose all your leaves In the winter of life
And struggle against the cold
Lonely dormancy
Small comfort
That blanket of snow
Then the days lengthen
The air fills with bird song
A rising raising warmth
Swelling buds
Sunshine intermixed with rain
Here comes the green of a full life
Here comes the flowers in their
Glorious colors
Flamboyant or shy
They decorate the earth
With hope
Why have you been visiting
To whom do you belong
You bring your partially shaded patio
With a view of that partially hidden path
Leading to a garden shed
You bring your comfy couch
The big long kitchen table
And overladen shelves of books
Into my dreams
Across the lazy curving road
A hill arises
Further up the road
Around a bend – is that a garden center
Or an arbor nursery
Why have you come
If not to provide me welcome
For a visit not yet invited
A recurring teasing glimpse
Of a place I might end up
Somewhen
A time of laughter among friends
With the sunlight pouring into
Windows made of dreams
The night before Christmas
We were walking
The night before Christmas
We were talking
We were falling in love
Christmas Eve
The lights hung from eaves
In the crisp winter night
Balloon Santa played in the yards
The deer were all right with their
Noses alight
We held hands as we walked
Down the street
We stopped for a drink at the
Local café
Sometimes it still feels like a dream
We sat in a café
We talked in that café
We fell in love over coffee that night
Now when winter begins
And the snow starts to fall
And the neighborhood lights are displayed
We walk down the street
Recall the present we found in each other
That Christmas Eve
On that Christmas Eve
Having known one another for years
That magical night everything shifted
Our eyes met in a way unexpected
Essentially seeing a future together
Our hearts to each other we gifted
Our hearts from each other accepted
On a cold winter
Bright winter
Night Christmas Eve
Write me into being one word at a time
Ink my hair in curls and wisps shining in the evening light
Type me in a soft pink dress hanging just below the knee
With a layer of cotton and one of lace
Erase the shoes from my bare feet that I might feel the earth
Compose music of harp and flute
Played by faeries in the forest
Fill the tree limbs with letters green
Pen bark upon their trunks
Slide paragraphs like rapids down the river there
Punctuate the sounds of water running over rocks
Edit out the midges, mosquitos, and the like
Unfold this scene in details
How my eyes search for your face
When my smile shines at your approach
Wrap your arms about me
Fold me closer to you
We’ll dance out of the pages
We’ll fly and never land
We’re a dream the muses sent
We’re pilgrims on a quest
In the end we must conclude
The ink has dried
The type’s been set
The paper’s in the printing press
Send me out into the world
Hard booked or paperbacked
When you sign the copies for your fans
Allow that it’s for me they Stan