collects for lent rise from the narrow couch and descend barefoot on the stone floor to Lenten fair, the daily reading picked up, laid down, meditation,

words like discipline and rebirth the bitter changes the sloughing off, a fresh encounter with solitude, old friend

* a concussed bluetit in the gloved hand no self-pity, those out there surviving, those out there the measure of our impurity our complacency our sloth the channel black granite interim between worlds en bateau, there also I pledged where the herring gulls crossed, no slack on them over the wrinkled acres

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