Carmel Point

By Robinson Jeffers

The extraordinary patience of things!
This beautiful place defaced with a crop of suburban houses-
How beautiful when we first beheld it,
Unbroken field of poppy and lupin walled with clean cliffs;
No intrusion but two or three horses pasturing,
Or a few milch cows rubbing their flanks on the outcrop rockheads-
Now the spoiler has come: does it care?
Not faintly. It has all time. It knows the people are a tide
That swells and in time will ebb, and all
Their works dissolve. Meanwhile the image of the pristine beauty
Lives in the very grain of the granite,
Safe as the endless ocean that climbs our cliff.-As for us:
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.

Prayer for the New Year

By Mary Mulvill

I want to write about

starting over. About how

the outgoing tide recedes,

almost imperceptible

at first, but steadily

lays bare the marooned

shells and delicate sand dollars

that were always there

under the tangle of kelp & foam.

And the vast plain

of luminous sand

that smoothes out

to welcome

those who have not given up

on nature, who pick up

each soaked bit of driftwood

in wonder. Examine

the fierce marks of seagull beaks

and the rounded corners

from years in the water.

Meanwhile, the incoming swells

give up the horizon

over and over. Reappear.

Everything I need

is here for me,

if I will only allow

myself to receive it.

I don’t know

quite where to start.

So, let this small poem,

almost overlooked

entirely, be my way

of beginning again.

Let me be open

to what lies hidden

in plain sight, watch

the slow doubling

of the beach unfold,

inhabit my

disappearing body

before it’s only a soul.


Mary Mulvihill is a health psychologist and professor at San Diego State University. She specializes in working with chronic pain, trauma, medical regimen management, geriatrics, and use of mindfulness, somatic therapy, and creative arts - including poetry for healing and personal growth. She grew up in San Diego, enjoying the ocean, swimming, and communing with nature. Dr. Mulvihill is a registered Soul Collage facilitator, which is an accessible modality for all to enjoy working with healing images, learning self-care, and fostering creativity. She began writing poetry when in graduate school at Emory University, where her mentor was John Stone. 

In the Time of Pandemic

By Kitty O’Meara

And the people stayed home.

And they listened, and read books, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.

And they listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.