I am learning to notice them. Easier
to be attentive when I’m being bitten;
easier to focus on the sharp, quick sting.
Harder to observe the spans of time
when my skin feels nothing but air.
How is it moments of ease disappear?
I want to practice witnessing peace,
to fully inhabit the time between slaps,
want to rest in the gaps when all is well.
There. I will build a nest there.
I wrote this poem based on a prompt from James Crews in his Weekly Pause. You can find his poem, the prompt (and subscribe) here.
PLUS, James and I will be doing a program together next week:
Stubborn Praise with James Crews
Tuesday, August 27
5:30 p.m. mountain time
Zoom
Please join beloved poet and anthologist James Crews and me for our next conversation and reading around the theme of Ripening Into Being. The event will be recorded. There’s a small cost. Sign up here, and we hope you’ll join us for this heart-centered and soulful conversation!
I kind of laughed when I read the title, laughed rather bittersweetly, I suppose, remembering all the bites from all the summers. I also got to thinking about the skin between the bites, where we got off scott-free, thank goodness. Thank you for your verse!
yes, not just the time between the bites, but also the skin space between them … great point!
“There I will build a nest there” I giggle and rejoice at a nest of peace has reentered your poetry? if my memory is workin HA!
I ask grace to download peace on a daily basis… powerful!
Thank You, Rosemerry.
j
I love nests! Especially in unlikely places!
I spent a good deal of time in an area of Hawaii (Big Island) at the edge of the rain forest, Hakalau. Buddhist bed and breakfast, no air conditioning/No phone reception etc! so I had to hike up a hill to a certain specific spot I found to make an occasional call. I bought a pair of pantyhose so I could do that. I wore a leg over my head and face as it was the only thing I couldn’t cover, otherwise, from the constant hoard, vampire-ish hoard! I was an object of interest to tourists driving by and was featured in many photos on Facebook at the time, I was told! LOL
I wish I could see! This sounds both funny and very not funny at the same time …
This is a lifelong exercise of mine. 👌