thank you note
To write a thank you note is a
bigger expense than to pay
money, and a seed
:- Doug.

We need each of us to cross
The flood of the not knowing we
Sometimes taste and sometimes not
:- Doug.
For all I write of Through
Do not get through your talking
Find friend, hide
:- Doug.
If this all is radiant
I read all books as poetry
Union spreads and spreads
My wind circles
Throughout you, endless sky
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Windsm # 2428
We keep life at arm’s length. Conversation threatens, shortens that arm, brings life within biting range.
Please pass it on.
© c 2025, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/274-5353, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
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Footprints in the Windsm # 2427
Sir, I don’t believe you.
Please pass it on.
© c 2025, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/274-5353, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
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I was trying to cut with blunt edged words
Activate through-sight:
Look not with eyes, but through them
:- Doug.
Find what’s precisely here to be found
This one’s soul’s humanity
Till a moment ago, covered over to you
:- Doug.
You stand and walk away, I disappear
You come down to face a hurting child, I am near
You sit to hug away the separation, there!
I am your lap, I am an instant world
Of you and child and all there is
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Windsm # 2426
She takes in the world,
provides a lap, soup from a hearth,
solace, encouragement, turning
of universe in her capacious heart.
He goes out to meet the world,
tames a patch of weeds or a nation,
teaches child to throw and not only catch,
sharpens to an edge of freedom.
This is how she writes, he writes,
gathering in, sending out
December, January; hands and feet.
Please pass it on.
© c 2025, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/274-5353, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word “subscribe” to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com
Humans walk into a ripe orchard
reach for one another’s hand
their hearts find here a juiciness
in this touch—which touch?—
a grandeur not for eyes
:- Doug.
From the seer-seen comes generosity. The cup overflows not from being poured into, but through.
:- Doug.
A conversation is not a journey but a hearth, flagon, and victuals along the way, not standing in the way of progress, but progress itself.
:- Doug.