Soul Mates
O, this morning, not a cloud in the sky, and coffee, black,
the way I like it. I have been watching a phoebe, dark hood
and wagtail bobbing, as he flits back and forth from the beauty
bush to the eave of the shed, just yards from this red Adirondack
chair where I’m sitting, breathing the day through my skin.
It rained last night, and the chair’s damp slats are cool
on my back; there’s a scree of frogs in the swamp, a creek
of sound in the background, a river of desire: Here I am. Find me.
Felicitous. That’s the only word to describe this. The sun pours
warm honey from its great glass jar, no matter how little we deserve it.
Some of us drag a heavy load through the day, a sack of should of’s,
or push a bushel of sorrow up a hill. But there’s the phoebe coming
back with his bit of straw or broken twig. He has a job to do,
and he sticks with it. And then he opens his beak and sings.
by Barbara Crooker retrieved at A First Sip on Substack at THIS LINK on May 7, 2026.
Invitation: “What am I dragging in my sack of should of’s?”
Barbara Crooker is an award-winning American poet known for writing about ordinary life with vivid attention to nature, family, aging, spirituality, and joy. She is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Radiance, Line Dance, Gold, The Book of Kells, Les Fauves, and Some Glad Morning. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Sun, The Christian Century, Poetry International, and The Christian Science Monitor.
Crooker has received many honors, including the WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, the Pen and Brush Poetry Prize, and multiple Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowships. Her poetry is often described as accessible and deeply human, balancing hardship with gratitude and wonder. More books available by Barbar Crooker can be found here: https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/barbara-crooker/564073/
In the video below, Grace Cavalieri, Barbara Crooker, Ryler Dustin, and Amy Holman read from their latest poetry collections. It is hosted by Lynn McGee (series founder), Susana H. Case, Carolyne Wright, and Sandy Yannone.
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May Courageous Citizen
Doris “Granny D” Haddock
“Just as an unbalanced mind can accumulate mental stresses that can grow and take on a life of their own, so little decisions of our modern life can accumulate to the point where our society finds itself bombing other people for their oil, or supporting dictators who torture whole populations—all so that our unbalanced interests might be served.”
"The sun pours warm honey from its great glass jar, no matter how little we deserve it." Barbara Crooker is inviting me to reflect upon the generosity of the sun, of sunshine, of nature. And, that there is not a requirement of worth, of deserving the gift and generosity of sunshine.
Oh the joy of slowing down to the pace of a bird building her nest twig by twig. Had the gift of watching 5 tiny sparrows wedged together in a left-behind Christmas wreath whose brown needles offered their mom shelter to build their nest. One by one their eyes opened until the day two fledged right over our heads.