Robin Michel writes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including Cloudbank, Comstock Review, Northhampton Poetry Journal, Sand Hills, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Switchgrass Review, and Wordpeace. Her debut poetry collection Beneath a Strawberry Night Sky was released October 2023 by Raven & Wren Press.
Moving Towards a Common Center
After you told me a story of loss while pausing
on steps perfumed by white gardenias in full bloom,
we found a perch on the concrete rail above the hill.
I then shared one of my own stories of loss.
Something in your focus of attention – as if seeing
a part of me kept under veil – drew me to you.
We would move towards a common center,
and then inch back a bit before moving forward again.
How long did you search for no random house, but this,
our future home? We painted it yellow. You built us a deck.
In sun, we delight in the view. In fog, we delight in what is hidden.
We find marriage a spiritual practice, and surprise ourselves
by falling more intensely in love again.
On occasion, we struggle with faith.
After threat of loss, we hold one another.
If one of us forgets to look, the other will take a hand
and we walk together into the fog’s veil,
marveling at the unseen –
love’s mysteries continuously revealed.