Sarah, My Daughter

There is a fullness within you
belied by the anxieties which befall you,
call you, from your sleep to waking fright.

That fulness is a mooring
able to protect you
in the tossing sea of people and feeling
that life is, love is; passion waits.

You are the gift of self assuredness,
your compass waivers not in whom you are. Only how,
finds you searching for meaning. Seeking the
place to fit yourself to, a good and lively mystery.

Walking that delicate balance
of independence and relationship,
its golden reconciliation more reward
than any other treasure one might offer.

Your weak arms, intelligence and beauty
already one of those exhiliarting strong-weak
mixes. Gravity is the weak force,
holding tons and tons of us to the earth.

Your mind reaches out to read what is to come,
an angel against caprice. Use this awar-iness
in its place. And the love which binds you and us,
family, in holiness, in New Hampshire-ness, together.

Learn to write in your way, apply that full court press
to bring the puppy, creativity, under some control.
Find the stories we need and worth telling
and write your heart and mind out to us.

Flow in the peace and beauty of music and earth.
Rest in that gentle rocking of wheat fields
and friends, of light and shadow, of perspective
and storms from and of the present.

Remember your beginnings: In Jane; gentle, cautious
of love, soft, seeing. And in Geoff; a storm in crying and joy,
a failing of restraint, a gentle heart.
Finely prepared meals are best when textures and
flavors blend in widely varying ways.

Your Father
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