Stumbling Back Into Practice
Offering myself patience and poetry prompts (two new exclusive to Substack poems)
Greetings, Friends! I am so grateful to have had the last several weeks off for my annual summer Substack break, and I am thankful to be getting back into my writing practice and looking forward to spending time with all of you in this space regularly each week.
I have so much to share in the coming weeks, as I have recently moved house (and states!), but as it’s all still such a knotted jumble of thoughts, feelings, and energies that I need to reflect on and sift through before I can properly put them to words, I decided to share a couple of new poems this week.
This past Thursday, I realized I hadn’t composed a single new poem since arriving in my temporary home at the very end of August. Admittedly, my head and heart still feel quite scattered, and at the same time, poetry is how I process Big Feelings and new experiences, so I decided to compromise and use a couple of the poetry prompts from the poet and novelist Joseph Fasano’s book, The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone to explore my inner world. These prompts have been fruitful for me in the past, and as much as I would like to feel the wellspring of my own ideas and prompts flowing at the moment, they are somewhat subdued, and I’m choosing to offer myself some grace when it comes to what a poetry practice looks like for me in this moment.
I’ll be back next week with some longer form reflections (and more poetry), but for now, I am sending you all my good wishes for a gentle weekend. As always, I hope you read something you love, and that if you do, you share it with someone you love.
Untitled Poem #1 (based on the Epiphany prompt in The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone)
*
All my life I tried to be the unshakable rock.
All my life I thought happiness was an unchanging space,
the blue never seeping from the sky.
All my life I was afraid to breathe.
*
Now I stand before the mirror
and see the face of an undulating ocean
that knows how to make peace with the deep.
My love, don't be afraid.
*
You are an undulating ocean.
*
All you have to do is make peace with the deep,
make peace with the deep,
make peace with the deep,
make peace with the deep,
make peace with the deep.
Untitled Poem #2 (based on the Teacher prompt in The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone)
*
What if I told you
that when I was hidden,
I dreamt of a city in the future,
a gleaming freedom?
*
What if I told you that
you are that gleaming freedom?
*
What if I told you
that even when I prayed
as clumsily as I could, no one heard.
But you did.
*
You gave me the words to weave,
to whirl, like a dervish in the night.
*
What if I showed you what I've learned?
What if I took flight?