July 14, 2023
Until I thought of myself as the sea
I used to separate good days from bad until
I thought of myself as an ocean. I used to slice times I felt strong from when I felt weak
until I imagined myself as the sea. Calm and
rocky, wild and soft, still and powerful and vast
and more than any one thing. In the ocean,
it's hard to divorce one mood from another,
one wave from the next. Now, on my worst days
I think how good life is too, how I still can greet
joy while swimming through grief. How fragile
strength sometimes feels. How I'm not any one thing in any one moment on any one day.
I'm all of it and all of it is me.
-Hannah Ro
July 2, 2023
if the pain was deep
you will have to let it go
many times
-yung pueblo
June 26, 2023
All That Wanting, Right? by Devin Kelly
I wanted a poem to come out of my sadness,
but no poem came. I wanted a revolution to come out of my burnout,
but no revolution came. I wanted a bird to fly through my open window, but my window was closed. I wanted
sun on an evening when it was already dark.
I wanted just a bit of grief rather than despair.
&, in my shame, I wanted my childhood back.
I wanted to walk backward out of the room
where I kept my secrets. I wanted to say I'm hurt
before my hurt became a character trait I told
no one but myself. When I wanted unknowing.
I was given certainty, & when I wanted the hard
& fixed line, I was given mystery. Sometimes,
I wanted to give it all back, but to who, I wondered,
& how? I wanted a life to come out of my life. All that wanting,
I think now, & still I woke this morning to light
& the memory of the time a bird did fly through
the open window of my apartment, &, scared
& senseless, shat all over the couch before leaving.
All that wanting, right? Sometimes it happens
& sometimes it doesn't & sometimes it happens
worse. Make do, little friend I call myself. Walk
backward out of the room you have made out
of your wanting into the room of where you are.
The poem is here. The revolution, too & love,
still, even in the evening, when light still shines.
June 16, 2021
Awakening Now by Danna Faulds
Why wait for your awakening?
The moment your eyes are open, seize the day.
Would you hold back when the Beloved beckons?
Would you deliver your litany of sins like a child’s collection of sea shells, prized and labeled?
“No, I can’t step across the threshold,” you say, eyes downcast.
“I’m not worthy” I’m afraid, and my motives aren’t pure.
I’m not perfect, and surely I haven’t practiced nearly enough.
My meditation isn’t deep, and my prayers are sometimes insincere.
I still chew my fingernails, and the refrigerator isn’t clean."
Do you value your reasons for staying small more than the light shining through the open door?
Forgive yourself.
Now is the only time you have to be whole.
Now is the sole moment that exists to live in the light of your true Self.
Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain.
Please, oh please, don’t continue to believe in your disbelief.
This is the day of your awakening.