Rise from the prayer mat
Leave the cold church stones to their obstinate disgust
Forgo the supplications
Dispense with the incense and the miserly begging bowl
Let the flowers remain uncut in the fields
And breathe
You are good enough


Stand solitary and unguarded in the bruised velvet night
Drenched in shadow
And looking up at the splendour
Allow the stars to burn their cosmic recipes into your tired sedated soul
Then smash your heart’s fragile casing and watch its gleaming centre hemorrhage all over the rest of your life
And breathe
You are good enough



Make music on a gentle day
And on those swamped by tempests add the passion
Dance without once looking at your feet
Grow careless with happiness
Grow carefree with pain
Swim naked
Burn the masks
And breathe
You are good enough

Take risks without thinking
Love ardently where love falls
Be it seconds or epochs
Be it willing or wrenched
Erupt with laughter when they taunt you
Be your power
And breathe
You are good enough




Shatter the mottled looking glass
And adorn yourself in comfort
As furtive fractious glances crave your happy easy toes
Demand of none complete devotion
Destroy the ticking timepiece
Embrace mortality with welcome
And breathe
You are good enough

(mish 2017)

The morning had been icy. People spoke of an uncommon cold snap and I imagined a large wedge of ice had broken from a distant glacier and was heading our way. The wind agreed.

I found the egg nestled in a pile of steaming leaf debris. Gathering it to me it felt warm and tender, delicate and fragile and easily broken like a curious promise, like a heartbeat before a heartbeat, like love before love.

As I cradled it shyly my rough and work worn hand felt like the finest of silken cushions resting upon which was every real and imagined wonder of the world. And I marveled that on an icy day I’d been granted the task of gifting such a miracle to you.

(mish 2017)

We waited beneath verdant forest veils for the owl to make its entrance
We believed the owl was a sign of wisdom
We believed we were wise for waiting
The others mocked our folly
Saying the owl was a portend of doom
They believed they were wise for warning
We poised our eyes like stealth missiles awaiting target
Attuned our hearing to bat-like frequency
They plugged their ears and slammed their eyes shut loudly like angry lovers making statements
Then came the beating breeze
Then came the rush of feathers
Then came the genius of the oracle’s wisdom
‘Hoot-hoot-hoot’
We reveled in it
They missed it … how sad!

(mish 2016)

Things that I hold dear:
A small silver bell to tie to my tongue in emergencies
A smooth round skipping stone that leads to quiet streams
Yellow galoshes with coin studded soles that click watery rhythms on rainy afternoons
A set of keys without doors
An out-sized faded beach umbrella found abandoned on a vacant lot miles from any ocean and worlds away from golden sands yet with strength enough remaining  to ferry several Mary
Poppins-es, with pockets full of sugar, to their varied destinations.
Lost rivers
Calendars that only predict numbers
A quiet pen
Vanishing cream
You
You
You

(mish 2018)

I want to laugh at the funeral
I want to sing liberty songs instead of hymns and feel the relief
Feel the release
From worry
From pain
From rules

I want also to cry at the loss of the pleasures
That too would hold permit

But they were only momentary wisps
Fleeting, succulent diversions

The pain was the constant
The heartache...
The fear, unrelenting

The love was magnificent

The risk...
The taboos were the sweetest
What we got away with together!

The love was magnificent

I want to cry with laughter
I want to miss you like breath
I want no-one to replace you

The love was magnificent

(mish 2018)

I dreamed a dream of glory
That I’d reached the mountain’s summit
With the fears of the ignorant a fading, threadbare backdrop

And I rested with the hush of innocence
Basking in the garden of Hesperides reborn
In harmony with the nymphs of sunset

The atmosphere was steeped in a fragrant peace
And Ladon the dragon was sincerity and sound embrace

Reaching warily, I plucked a golden apple from a blushing perfumed branch
Its juice was tangy, its flesh sweet radiance
My eyes saw clearly and my heart filled with joy
And my mind awakened and I did not die
The tree of knowledge had laid bare its timeless secret: god is a liar.

(mish 2017)

Tell me again about your memories of us
Of the loveliness-es and the honour and the courage
Of how you found me
And how I found you
Tell me now
So it will be branded like hot toffee on the skin
Painful and scalding and sweet
And never to be forgotten


Tell me of what you offered me
Of what I offered you
Of our first shy kiss
Of the warriors we fought
Of the battles we endured and won
Tell me again how all water is the first water
How all rocks are the beginning of creation


Tell me as you hold me like the first time we embraced
Tell me again about your memories of us
Tell me
Because the world is closing in and I’m afraid

(mish 2017)