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Posts Tagged ‘heat’

From the Sauna

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 31, 2024| 1 Comment »


 
 
As the sweat beads on my chest,
I ask my daughter to ladle water
over the rocks. Steam rises
to fill our lungs and heat our skin.
My lips move to whisper
Ihanaa löylyä, “beautiful steam,”
but it is my Finnish host mother’s voice
I hear. She taught me, too, to crave it,
to love it, to long for the shock
of its intensity, helped me practice
learning to desire what is good
for the body, though it is uncomfortable.
Ihanaa löylyä, I say to my daughter
as she gasps from the heat.
She repeats it in Finnish, in English.
Beautiful steam, though her syllables
lack conviction. The steam is,
I trust, doing its good sauna work—
cleansing the body, relaxing
the mind. Now it’s natural
to want it, even as I struggle
to stay with the heat. Sweat rolls down
my cheeks. I praise it, call it beautiful—
the steam, the feeling, yes, but also
this learning to love what is sometimes
not easy at first to love.

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These Hot Days

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on July 27, 2023| 6 Comments »


And when at last
the breeze comes
on the breath of night,
the whole body sings
with the chill of it—
craves the cool lick
of sharp tongues
on the skin, the bite
of the distant storm.
Touch me here,
says my flesh,
as if I’ve been waiting
all day for my lover—
here, touch me here.
And it feels so good
when the wind slips in
and does what a breeze will do,
but the wanting—
I notice how it, too,
has something
painfully beautiful
to teach me.

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On the Coals of Grief

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 17, 2022| 10 Comments »




It’s not that the bare feet
wanted to walk on coals.
They didn’t. They wanted
to walk on a beach
where the clear water
would rush up
and cool them
whenever the ground
got too hot.
The bare feet feel heavy.
They want to sink
into the sand
and stay there.
But coals it is.
No use asking why.
The question is
how to walk the walk
they’ve been given,
because today,
getting stuck hurts.
It’s all up to you.
the coals seem to say.
If you sink in here
you will burn
so dance light,
be light.

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