Eric Sponheim

Read, not once but several times.
Let nuance emerge
as words, once new,
become old friends,
memories offering new insight
about what was and what will be,
all lines in but one.

Learn what matters now
because what mattered then
keeps becoming something possible,
because today cries out for 
skills learned tomorrow.
All lines in but one. 

Mark the time that pulses, stretches, curves,
folding new stories into old,
revealing surprises in the familiar
like one person providing freedom 
through love poured abundantly
into steadfast attention to detail.
All lines in but one. 

Inwardly digest the nourishing grace
received with gratitude and offered anew
by every life touched
by laboring hands that
     row and write,
     administer and greet,
     reach and create,
writing a new chapter
     as one who tends the boat while the young folks fish,
     as one whose contributions liberate from a distance,
     as one whose story is never fully written, open to the end,
all lines in but one.