Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘power’

And then came the day I discovered
a sky full of birds inside and around me,
all of them singing love, love, love.
Around my shoulders appeared
a cloak of stars going supernova.
In my womb swirled a chorus of waves.
How could I not have known I was
growing a crown of antlers?
How could I have missed
my whole life has been preparing me
to transform who I am for love?
Now all I want is to open enough
to let love do with me what it will.
I want to be in service to the radiance
that even now begins to shine through.
I want to lose what I thought I knew
of my story. And though fear is also here,
I want to surrender to the strange
and insistent voice of love saying,
These are the gifts you’ve been given.
Now, sweetheart, now, be the change.

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

*
Well, today was such fun, friends! I spent it with my friend Kellie Day (you can hear an interview I did with her on Emerging Form here), and we created these fabulous, powerful versions of ourselves (almost six feet tall!, using paint, collage, spray paint, marker). Between each stage of art, we wrote poems inspired by process, parts of which entered our paintings (see my word-lined cloak and Kellie’s “goddess bodice”). It was such a day of self-discovery, surprising potential and infinite possibility. Maybe you’d want to join us in person May 30 when we offer a class together? If yes, let me know and I can put you on a list for information. 

Read Full Post »


—for my daughter
 
 
One day you will wake
and discover you are a sun,
radiant, fueled by your own core,
capable of luminosity so great
you blaze through lightyears of darkness.
You will know your own power
and it will never occur to you
not to trust it, not to share it.
You will not be able to forget
your own magnitude.
Nor will such glory be a burden.
You will simply shine
because that is who you are.
No need to apologize.
No reason to be jealous
of any other sun,
of any other star.
On that day,
you will see how it is
you have always been a sun,
even in the darkest days.
Then, you were also the clouds
and the great shadow
that made you stop
believing in your light.
You are, in fact,
what makes the day itself—
you are that integral,
that crucial,
that bright.

Read Full Post »

One Beginning

 
 
so spindly
these seedlings
that will soon feed hundreds

Read Full Post »

Kindness went out and got itself

a new engine—a four-hundred horsepower

twin turbo 3.3 liter V-6 engine.

Something with real oomph.

Something that provides a bit of giddy-up

when the loving gets tough. Turns out

kindness likes horsepower.

A lot of horsepower. Plus it sprung

for direct fuel injection to maximize

its power output. Everyone thinks

kindness prefers things quiet and calm,

but kindness is ready for action—

ready to take on the world,

ready to travel every back road,

every highway, every main street

and get this ever-loving show on the road.

There’s a whole lot of loving to do.

Read Full Post »

Manifesto

 

 

 

And if we can’t save the world,

and who says we can’t, then

let us try anyway. Perhaps

we have no superhuman powers—

can’t see through buildings,

can’t fly, can’t bend the bars of cages—

but we have human powers—

can listen, can stand up to,

can stand up for, can cradle.

And if we can’t imagine

a world of peace, and who

says we can’t, then let us

try anyway. Perhaps we start

tonight—on a Wednesday.

Thursday works, too. Or Friday.

Doesn’t much matter the day.

All that matters is the choice

to meet this moment exactly

as it is, with no dream of being

anyone else but our flawed

and fabulous very self—

and then, wholly present,

bringing this self to the world,

touching again and again what is true.

What if we do? And if we can’t

save ourselves, and who

says we can’t, let’s try anyway.

There was a time I thought

I could never be healed. That

was only because it hadn’t happened yet,

so I decided it wasn’t possible.

Healing happened anyway.

What have we decided isn’t possible?

What if we stopped believing

that limit? What if, right now,

we used our human powers

of compassion, clarity, gratitude,

praise? What if we did it together—

opened all those closed doors inside

us? What if we let the opening do

what opening does?

Read Full Post »

 

 

and so we rise in darkness

and let our bodies move

without the blare of light.

The house is still and we

are somehow changed

by stillness, changed

by dark. As if we’ve

grown pads in our feet.

As if we are learning

a new silent language

with our limbs, a language

more graceful, more awake.

We find candles. Find

matches. Let the tiny lights

find us. For a thousand years

in Egypt, they wrote

and rewrote The Book

of Emerging Forth into the Light,

a series of writings we somehow came

to call The Book of the Dead.

All the spells were written

to help the dead person journey

through hostile forces

into the afterlife.

And this morning, we

are our only obstacles.

Still, the candles

are a bit like spells,

guiding us with their brilliant ink

toward dawn. There

are no warnings, no judgements,

no naming of evil spirits.

Only this new language

to learn with its syntax

of carbon, it etymologies

of shadow, its phonemes

of coming light.

 

Read Full Post »

 

 

 

the world is new again,

white and blank, a page

waiting for us to write

Read Full Post »

Misunderstanding

The two bull elk in the yard startled
when I walked out the front door.
They stared at me as I stared at them.
Though I stepped quiet and slow
in a different direction, they turned and ran
into the trees. How could they be
so frightened of me? Ah, of course.
Perhaps I am the one who does not
understand my power.

Read Full Post »

perhaps to prove
she can change the world
my daughter stomps
on the icicle right when
my camera clicks

Read Full Post »