GathHighlights

Where do I seek it?I found it unexpectedly when I …It wasn’t where I thought it was. The Hunchback a tale by Eugene Marckx In those ancient times the Mountain king, the River king, and the Valley king considered themselves brothers in the lineage of the Moon-Goddess. So, at last when the Valley king died,…

Who me?Why would I want to?What I’d like to change is …             by Richard Hugo (1923-1982) SECOND CHANCES by Richard Hugo (1923-1982) I can’t let it go, the picture I keep of myself in ruin, living alone, some wretched town where friendship is based on just being around. And I drink there a lot,…

Questions for Myself Do I love my father?How did my father wound me?How did my father change my parenting? Fathers and Sons By Eugene Marckx Dale lived alone with his mother, except on nights when the banker’s top hat was hanging on her bedroom door, or the senator’s homburg, or the general’s roughrider hat. Dale…

Was it mothering or smothering?How was it to be mothered for me?Was I mothered by my father? Nestor By Eugene Marckx A featherbrained idler – what your grandfather said of him, and farmers hereabouts who should’ve known better, long after Nestor took to the road. Then he was forgotten, but the forgetting couldn’t quite fill…

Can I look at my scars?Did my wounds heal and scars?How do I benefit from my scars? Old Soldier He walks between his metal shop and his greenhousefingernails broken at the edgeswrists coloring rust into the dirtfeet spread apart the old grunt way‒ a habit not broken off frommortars dropping In the metal shop sparks…

Who mentors you?Are you a mentor?Did a mentor change your life? The Seven Directions LOST BROTHER Recording includes the poem and a short story of Baal Shem Tov (The Besht) By Stanley Moss I knew that tree was my lost brother when I heard he was cut down at four thousand eight hundred sixty-two years; I…

Can you list the miracles in your life?What to you is miraculous? The Heart of Us All  With the radio and the television off all morning  and the newspaper folded in its chair  I leave the laptop alone  and set my phone on mute  I just want to hear bird-chatter in the air  faint shouts…

What made my worst Day?Remembering my best dayLiving through my worst day The Lion for Real              By Allen Ginsberg                          Soyez muette pour moi, Idole contemplative…  I came home and found a lion in my living room  Rushed out on the fire-escape screaming Lion! Lion!  Two stenographers pulled their brunette hair and banged the window shut  I hurried…

What am I waiting for?Why not now?What holds me back?When? The Black Snake    by Mary Oliver When the black snake flashed onto the morning road, and the truck could not swerve— death, that is how it happens. Now he lies looped and useless as an old bicycle tire. O stop the car and carry…

How do I make time for myself?What was I told was a waste of my time?Do I make time for what’s important to me? Basket Woman [cpm-player skin="device-player-skin" width="450" playlist="true" autoplay="false" shuffle="false" type="audio"][cpm-item file="https://www.agatheringofmen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/basketWoman.wav"]basketWoman[/cpm-item][/cpm-player] A tale by Eugene Marckx Long ago when the first people lived on the earth a young man left all his…