after the killing of Renee Nicole Good
Into the woods I carried
my broken open heart,
knowing it rhymed with millions
of other broken open hearts,
and there, in the silence
of spruce trees and new snow
and cloudless blue sky, the heart
gaped with its relentless ache.
I so deeply loved the world and
I was so terribly upset by the world.
All this. All this. The snow was
impossibly peaceful. It softened
every broken rock, broken stick.
I felt, at the same time,
the raw wound of injustice
and the infinitude of primeval
peace, both of them saying,
remember, remember, remember.
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
All This
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ache, heartache, paradox, peace, politics, snow, woods on January 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Building the World We Believe In
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bully, community, politics, standing up, voice on January 7, 2026| 10 Comments »
I haven’t given up on humans yet.
Though here in America where masked agents
pull women and men from their homes–
people who build our communities, our country–
we are so far from the goodness I imagine.
In second grade, I remember making forts
at recess with small snow balls we’d
squeeze in our hands. So carefully,
so gently, we would place them, one on top
of another to create a small home.
And then, maybe every time, when
the recess bell rang, a group of boys
would linger and at the last moment
they would kick our snow walls down.
It is in all of us, the bully, the one
who enjoys destruction, the one who
wants to feel powerful, strong.
But it is also in us all to speak out
for each other, to stand up for each other,
to say no, this is not okay. It is in us all of us
to gather the way we did in second grade
with our small mittened hands, going out
the next recess, and the next, and the next,
to build together again. Because we can.
Dear Finn,
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged American Flag, opposition, politics, protest on October 22, 2025| 14 Comments »
On the way home from the protest,
It occurred to me you likely would have
stood quietly on the corner of Oak and Colorado
with a sign that said, I stand with the President.
It makes me grateful we were able
to talk about such things when you were here,
both of us loving our country in such different ways.
I’m sure somehow you know they flew
the American flag over the capitol building
in DC for you, a gift from someone we never met.
They sent us that flag. It flew over the school
on the day you didn’t graduate.
I sat in the school parking lot that day and watched
the breeze lift its corners, giving life to the flag,
somehow giving life to you, too.
Every time I see the American flag, I say hello to you,
especially the flag at the bottom of our drive.
I know you don’t hear me when I greet you,
but somehow I know you do. Like the way I don’t
hear the sun, its wavelengths measured
in hundreds of miles. Just because I can’t
comprehend the sound doesn’t mean the sound
isn’t there. So I send my small yawp into the air,
and trust our mutual love for our country still brings
us together somehow. Me in person, you in the wind,
the wind that catches this hello from my lips
and carries it beyond what is here. What is here?
The chance to remember how deeply we can love
those who are so different from us. The chance
to remember how unity can look like disagreement.
The chance to remember what is here is sometimes,
like peace, what doesn’t seem to be here.
Driving with My Son the Night Before His Driver’s Test
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged driving, parenting, politics, togetherness, unity on September 29, 2020| 6 Comments »
We turn off the music. Practice left turns
onto the highway. Park on the bias.
Park on the street. We get gas.
Drive backwards. Use the median.
Change lanes. Use the blinker.
Slow down. Full stop.
There’s a rule for everything
and a comfort in knowing the rules.
“And you can practice everywhere,”
notes our DMV guidelines, “so have at it!”
Imagine if we all practiced everywhere.
If we all signaled before every turn—
turn of heart, turn of mind, turn of plans.
Imagine if we all agreed, no matter where
we’re going and no matter where we’ve been,
that we are all travelers on the same side,
knowing we’re on this road together.
Imagine if we agreed to stop in an orderly way—
no drama, no shaming, no blame,
so that someone else might take their turn to go.
Imagine, getting along with others,
no matter what they believe,
could be as simple as keeping it steady,
looking over your shoulder,
making eye contact in a crossing,
giving each other some space.
Who’s Missing at the Table?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged braided way, conversation, politics, writing on January 31, 2020| 4 Comments »
I’m so grateful to Braided Way for sharing this poem today …
In a time of national crisis, what our country really needs is a good poem.
—Herbert Hoover
This is the time when we must say to the stranger,
the other, sit here. Notice how difficult it can be
to even come to the same table, how hard
to look the other in the eye. Something in us screams,
“Right, I am right.” And it is hard to hear the voice
beneath that scream, a whisper of a gospel that says
nothing at all.
This is the time when we must say to ourselves,
I am also the stranger, when we must look
in the mirror and not know who it is we see—
someone capable of being more courageous,
more compassionate, more devoted, more
astonishingly vulnerable and connected
than we ever knew ourselves to be. Who
is that stranger in the mirror, we must ask,
and vow to never let her down.
This is the time when we must write the poems
our country needs, the poem that builds the bridge
from truth to truth and never touches the river
of lies. The poem that allows our country
to fall in love with itself again, the poem
with enough places set at its table
that everyone knows they have a place to sit
and the rest of us know when that person is missing
because their chair is empty.
This is the time for the beauty that passes
all understanding, a testament of goodness
that cannot be contained, a congress of delight.
This is the time to pick up your pen
and with your most tender, most beautiful,
most ferocious self,
fight.
Paradigm
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged garden, land, poem, poetry, politics, sunflower on June 4, 2019| 2 Comments »
In almost every garden bed,
the sunflowers seedlings volunteer—
and every year I dig them up
and find them a home along the fence
where they can grow extravagantly.
Oh exuberance, of course
I love the sunflowers, their crazy willingness
to grow amongst the beets, amongst
the greens, amongst the chard
and kale and peas. I love their insistence
on making beauty and reaching for light.
I love their great golden heads,
playground of bees, nodding until
all their petals are gone. I know
they don’t mean to shade everything else,
don’t mean to block out the light.
They’re just doing what they were
designed to do. Grow tall.
Be stunning. Gather light. Make more.
A Conversation on Poetry, Politics, and Moving through the Day in a Yogini Way
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poetry, politics, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, sarah hutchinson, self care, vlog, yoga on May 2, 2017| 2 Comments »
A few weeks ago, my friend Sarah Hutchinson wrote and asked if we could do an interview for her vlog, Yoga Wisdom and Wellness. How do we care for ourselves in difficult times? How do we care for each other? Sarah and I are planning to do a day of poetry and yoga in Grand Junction this fall … more about that soon.
I hope you enjoy our conversation, available on video http://www.yogawisdomandwellness.com/yoga-and-poetry/?inf_contact_key=6e2770c33a8367c40362045ee888fe5a53ff3f8439d2ce904643bbae7ffdc222 or you can download the audio https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt7r58qn97cfwba/Edited%20%26%20Balanced%20Audio%20-%20World%20Woman%20-%20March%202017.mp3?dl=0&inf_contact_key=a6dd7cc93228ef0d842b8eb77085981afabaa0f012dc0998000f24fd4dabc2d0
All the best!
Rosemerry
Letter to the Senator
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged grammar, monostitch, poem, poetry, politics on January 25, 2017| 3 Comments »
Before I press send, I edit the last sentence so the adverb doesn’t split the infinitive—not that I care for grammar, just that it feels good today to have one small thing I know how to fix.
After Years of Eschewing Politics
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged activism, poem, poetry, politics on January 22, 2017| 6 Comments »
throwing my small voice
into the big conversation,
part of me thrills
part of me shivers
to think it might really matter