my ears lost in my hair
skin in hide and seek
while waiting for the rain
while making some tea
I am owed
after I leave I wait to arrive
an endless innovation
of grief, of joy
loneliness is only an ongoing
connection with time
strange at its best
I learn how to speak to myself
in courageous tenderness
and enact rest
________________________
Pic: The kandi bracelet Nu made me and Tiggy-Winkle (after Beatrix Potter) the fidget hedgehog KPB crocheted for me. Aren't they amazing? They look like they could be friends and live together!
15 comments:
The last stanza reminds me so much of the woman whose name I forget who coined the phrase "Strugglecare." She would say "take care of yourself so tenderly." I read her book (seriously cannot remember her name! Must find out) during the pandemic and that word "tenderly" really stayed with me. We are so tender with babies, with loved ones, but not often with ourselves. I love the idea of taking care of ourselves tenderly. And enact rest! Yes! Just yesterday I heard a quote that rest is not earned, it is required. A good lesson for all of us who tend to take on too much and to think "I'll rest when I've done XYZ.:
Love the bracelet and the crochet! It's amazing to me what people can make from a blob of yarn. Isn't it magical?
"Loneliness is only an ongoing connection with time..." I would like to delve into that line more deeply! Beautiful poem.
I like the line, "after I leave I wait to arrive."
Beautiful poem! That last stands are really speaks to me as I have quite a bit of guilt around the amount of rest that my body require. I got leveled with some sort of virus on Tuesday night so I have spent so much time in bed for the last day or so!!
Nice.
Me, too, Jenny! I feel like I need to really sit with this line and think about what it means in my life. Right now it doesn't mean anything good.
This poem is a woman's poem, I think. So much of it speaks to the Woman's Experience:
the idea of making tea we are owed, i.e., supplying our own comforts; the idea of leaving only to wait to arrive--this is a wonderful way to express how we are expected to be patient for so many things that we should have already but must wait until they are bestowed; the last stanza illustrating that, in this world, women have to actually be courageous to self-care, that we have to simply carve out that restorative time for ourselves because if we do not, more and more will be expected of us, to our detriment.
Aren't people amazing with their talent and generosity, Nicole?! Is the "strugglecare" person KC Davis?
Thank you, Jenny and Engie. Sorry, that line is a bit of a bummer. Strange how we can feel lonely even as our lives are so busy...
Thanks, Steph... I'm breathless with activity all the time these days.
Oh no, Lisa! I hope you're recovering/have recovered. Do you know the work of Tricia Hersey the "Nap Bishop" who founded the "Nap Ministry" and wrote _Rest is Resistance_? My religious studies colleagues recommended her work, and it's awesome.
Thanks!
I can see that, Nance... there is a passivity (quietness/nurture/rest) to it. Thank you for pointing that out!
yes, that's who it is!
I have not heard of her but will be checking out her work!!!
Post a Comment