*

RIVER QUESTION?

The river flowed slowly
down the path
it took a long time ago –
and I sat there by the bank,
realizing my life
is slowly flowing away.
And I asked myself
life’s big question:
Should I be taking
this path or is there
another path for me?

* [Potomac River at the

Jesuit Loyola Retreat

House in Faulkner, MD]

© Andrew Costello, 2008

HANG IN THERE

Hang in there even if it’s winter
and you have to go out
and somebody borrowed your gloves.

© Andy Costello, 2008

THE
CONSTANT
HOPE

The cold of winter,
the sight of sun;
kindness will melt
the frozen heart.

© Andy Costello, 2008

CAN’T SLEEP

Can’t sleep,
angry at a noisy clock,
ticking, ticking away,
like so many
second thoughts
about a bad day ….
Can’t sleep.
Don’t know what to say.
Don’t know what to do,
You. Did you ever feel
this way too?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2008

TABLE  AND  CHAIR

This frozen night
both of us are lucky
to be sitting here
in this warm house
at this kitchen table
far away from the frozen forest.

© Andy Costello, 2008

A MARRIAGE

Yes, there are the big scenes,
the “Where we first met?”
or, “How we first met,”
and the decision moment,
the “Yes,”
then the wedding,
the honeymoon,
the “I’m pregnant”
the births, the first word,
the first steps, the clapping,
school, plays, recitals, going to games,
graduations, marriages, grandkids,
and oh yeah, the big mistakes,
the ones that can’t be forgotten
and sometimes hard to forgive,
the hurts, the cries of pain,
the cries of passion … but let’s be honest,
marriage is the small moments,
mostly small moments,
the holding the door for the other
remembering the other has an appointment,
the recognition that something is different in the other,
the small looks, the slight touches,
the looks across the kitchen,
the putting down of the papers,
the turning off the television to talk,
moments on a couch together,
the asking of the questions,
listening, being quiet, asking again,
trying to understand the meaning,
the feelings, the small stuff,
all those moments called, “Life”,
called “Being married to you!”
called, “Thank You, God. Thank You!”

© Andy Costello, 2008

QUESTIONABLE?

Wedding rings mean something,
even when so much of the sacred
has been squeezed out of a marriage –
a marriage that has become
like an empty, wrinkled, flat tube
of toothpaste left on the sink –
a marriage of two who don’t seem to care
for each other any more –
especially if there was the quick slipping off
of a ring in an affair:
the death penalty to most marriages.
Can there be a re-marriage to a marriage?
Can the blessing return to a ring?

© Andy Costello, 2008