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Posts Tagged ‘no’

After Years of Pretending I Could Do It All

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 6, 2024| 10 Comments »

I said yes today when Linda asked
if I’d like a nutritious drink to go.
You’ll need the protein, she said, as she slipped
the bottle into a paper bag. I said yes
when she offered to bring me food later.
Said yes when she offered to bring me wine.
And when Steve said, Let’s go outside,
I said yes. Yes as he showed me the best spot
to sit to face east in the morning. Yes
as he showed me the place to face west.
And later when Joan asked if she could hold me—
one palm to my chest, one palm to my back,
her forehead touched to my shoulder—
I said yes. I said yes as she helped me
to carry boxes and bags. Said yes
as she handed me water. I, the queen of no,
said yes. I, who have thought I could do it
alone, I who desperately want to not be a burden,
I who have longed for control,
I who have made a small cell out of no
said yes and felt the doors of reluctance
swing open then fall off their hinges then
dissolve into gratefulness. How long
have I thought I needed to do this alone?
How long have I clung to this island
of separateness? How sweet
it tastes, this yes. Like chocolate,
with thirty grams of protein no less.
Like pure water, offered in a small white cup,
something I need to live. Something I’m made of.

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From Shatter the Silence

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 16, 2024| 11 Comments »

Dear Friends, 

I was so grateful to be invited again this year to participate in a poetry reading against sexual assault int he Teen Love & Consent week at my local high school. 

I wrote this poem for those students–because I believe that it is essential that our NO is heard when talking about who has the right to touch our bodies, and I also believe that it is essential to dream of the world we do want. What does it look like, a world of deep respect, equality, kindness? What do I most want to say yes to? 

I wept (I know, surprise, surprise) at the candor and valor of the students and teachers who participated. I am so heartened by the courage and strength of our teens. 

When We Say No
 
 
When we say no, we mean
this body is my forest
and you are now a trespasser here.
We mean I will not be
one of seven hundred thousand people
raped in America this year.
We mean no to all rape,
any year, anywhere.
When we say no, we mean
yes to our choice, we mean yes
to our freedom, yes to our safety,
yes to our peace, yes to our trust
and yes to respect. We say yes
to our own inner flowering—
may we continue to flower.
We say yes to the power of no.
When we say no, we mean
never again. We mean
you have the duty
to not hurt, to not take,
to not cut down our bodies
like saplings. We mean yes
to hope, yes to making it right,
yes to not having to fight
for the right to be safe,
yes to our voices mattering,
yes to the silence shattering,
yes to each of us growing
like a forest, our boundaries clear,
our bodies sacred.
 
 

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One Indestructible

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 6, 2020| 2 Comments »

 

 

just when the sledgehammer of no

takes its best shot,

finding in me an invincible yes

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Positively

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 21, 2016| 9 Comments »

 

 

 

Saying yes to too many things at once

is like eating dark chocolate truffles one

after another after another. The first

 

is infused with wild raspberry, which leads

to a caramel truffle with fleur de sel, which leads

to two smooth champagne truffles, which leads

 

to a tummy ache, bittersweet. My calendar

has a tummy ache. Its numbered squares

are filled in with rows of rich invitations…

 

a book club infused with Louise Erdrich

and Sauvignon Blanc, a meditation retreat

handcrafted with extra silence, a trail run

 

through aspen groves filled with silky light.

How could I pass on any of these delights?

Saying yes to too many things at once

 

is like crossing a remote border at midnight,

and though your pulse races with the thrill,

you have no idea if you will ever know

 

what home means again. Saying yes

to too many things at once is in fact

a disguise for saying no. No to openness,

 

no to spontaneity, no to whatever surprise

might have found its way into the vacant

possibility of that deliciously empty square.

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