I am a retired rehabilitation worker in the Toronto area.

I worked with adults with a brain injury for 30 years.

I have been writing poetry for over 30 years:

Poems From Empty Space  1994-2000

Meeting The Angel  2006

Bridge To the Future  2010

Solace And Joy 2011

Collected Poems 1995-2020

Outbreath:  Recent Poems 2020-2024

Thanks for looking!
   Michael Ferrel

Bridge To The Future          2009

This new bridge will be made by our walking,
Defying both fate and what we think is real.
A subtle cosmic parlor trick is breaking
Down laws of time and habit like a miracle.

You have not walked this bridge before.
It is like a pasture open wide in all directions.
What you sow by your own steps becomes core,
Your willingness—your discretion.

To live the next two thousand days
Is a summons to fortitude and valour.
There is not a day to waste.
We will not wait a thousand years.

Do not say to the moment that it must last.
We will not be allowed to hesitate.
It is chaos—we spin too fast,
Yet no one can make the summons wait!

You have not heard it all before.
Something unknown is breaking through.
Wolves and angels are at the door:
The bully; the crone; the old love; the new.

In these moments we are all weak.
We can not say what we need to without crying.
But it is not necessary to speak
More than a few words to what has been dying.

What falls apart we must leave like dust.
Nothing heavenly stops our forward motion.
What once was seen as blind faith or empty trust
Is now our bridge, our sacrifice, our communion.