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Posts Tagged ‘strength’

Dressing for the Wedding 

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 29, 2025| 21 Comments »


 
She doesn’t want to wear short sleeves, she says,
because they will show her “old woman arms.”
Sometimes worry is just another word
for wanting to be loved just as we are.
I want to remind her how her arms
have been cradles and rocking chairs.
They’ve been cranes that lifted children
and grandchildren high. Her arms
have been levers and ladders and lifeboats.
They’ve been flagpoles and bridge makers
and chapels. Her arms kneaded the dough of my life
and still hold me when I am tired, broken,
scared, depressed. I hope she wears a sleeveless
dress for no other reason than to show
the whole world how her arms are still
in service to love, and damn, how they can flex.

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A Wild Becoming

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 1, 2025| 20 Comments »

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. 

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Attuned

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 1, 2020| 6 Comments »

I want to meet the world

the way these calendula blossoms

meet the cold.

While everything around them

has wilted or browned,

they lift up their gold and orange faces

like bright earthbound suns—

not with some agenda

to make the world a better place,

but because they are doing

what they are made to do—

to be soft yet resilient,

beautiful and tough,

to carry inside themselves

the seeds for more beauty,

and, when the time comes,

spill them everywhere.

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Wishing I Were Stronger in the Face of Grief

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 7, 2020| 4 Comments »

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Tonight, courage is the voice

of the mint tea as it lends its strength,

its green to the water.

 

It’s no small thing

to infuse something else

with warmth, with sweetness.

 

All day, I’ve wanted to be bolder.

All day, I’ve felt unsure

of what comes next.

 

The mint says yes, says drink,

says rest. Says, a small kick

can do a lot. The mint says,

 

one way to get stronger

is patience. It soothes me,

it helps me to sit

 

and feel what I feel

this smooth tea—

subtle, strong enough.

 

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Still Learning About My Mother

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 3, 2019| 4 Comments »

 

 

It surprises me she is fragile,

this woman who labored for eighteen hours

 

to birth me, this woman who cared for me

every time I was sick, who coached

 

my soccer team, who led my Girl Scout troupe.

This woman who went hunting and fishing

 

and still often comes home with the biggest

catch. This woman who walked ten miles

 

to raise money for hunger. This woman

who prays for everyone, everyone.

 

And so tonight when I walk her

to her room and she needs to stop

 

a moment to catch her breath,

I marvel at how human she is,

 

this woman who has been more

than human to me my whole life—

 

a super hero, a champion, a star.

And somehow, knowing this, and

 

understanding that it’s been true all along,

I fall even more deeply in love with her

 

as she leans back on the bed, lets out

a long sigh, closes her eyes, and smiles.

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What Delilah Said After They Took Samson

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

I didn’t know I would love you more

when you were no longer strong—

you were so tender then, and soft.

And gone. They wouldn’t let me keep your hair.

I kept a strand anyway. I wear it

in a locket chained around my neck.

Sometimes I am strong enough

to open it. Sometimes I am strong enough

to weep for what was lost.

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