March was a month of heavy lifting… interior heavy lifting… which is not always the best blog fodder.
Ali Edward’s team did not make this month’s work any easier… they suggested having a conversation with our word, and so I spent a great deal of time in quiet contemplation conversing with my well-hidden authentic inner self. I pondered much and wrote quite a bit in my journal. I also got a great deal of help from Ada Limón’s book of poetry, The Hurting Kind… I have found this little volume of poems to be so perfect for ‘what ails me.’ Ada so perfectly gives voice to what I am seeking to fix… free… find…
One poem in particular was in my regular rotation this month and I am sharing that poem with you all today in lieu of all that interior heavy lifting I have done.
Sanctuary
by Ada Limón
Suppose it’s easy to slip
into another’s green skin,
bury yourself in leaves
and wait for a breaking,
a breaking open, a breaking
out. I have, before, been
tricked into believing
I could be both an I
and the world. The great eye
of the world is both gaze
and gloss. To be swallowed
by being seen. A dream.
To be made whole
by being not a witness,
but witnessed.
Sanctuary by Ada Limón The Hurting Kind© Milkweed Editions, 2022.
As always, I want to thank Carolyn for providing the space for us to share ourselves as we support each other in our journeys. See you all back here on Wednesday with some Unraveling!
I think you did a great job of taking what was your personal contemplation and putting it into words for your blog readers! I hope your heavy lifting provides moving some things and finding others, and thank you for sharing that wonderful poem.
What a wonderful poem Kat! Thank you for sharing. It is often hard to even find our “hidden parts” let alone share them. Your continued contemplation will help, I’m sure.
Some months are just like that , they are tough going. You are working well though in your journal. Reading back through it may help too. Honesty is the key.
These are the hardest posts to write, if you ask me. So much word work is interior…just…not meant for posting. And still, showing up here holds us to it (and so we want to show up with SOMETHING!). I think you and Ada said it beautifully today.
xo
what a poem, thank you for sharing it. Interior work is so hard for me but a must the older I get.
I know that you are doing the work, and that’s what’s most important — not reporting on it to the wider world. The poem does a wonderful job of giving us a sense of the heavy lifting you’re doing.
That’s a lovely poem. I’m really glad the Ali Edward’s experience is working for you, Kat.
I am enjoying it so much! Thank you ????
I just read that very same poem this morning from Limon’s book. Every nuance does not have to be shared for it to be authentic for you. I’m glad the month has given you some things to ponder.
What a gorgeous poem, Kat. Thanks for sharing it. And I love that I can hear Limón’s voice in my head, thanks for her On Being interview.
And what an interesting idea – to have a conversation with out word. I bet that gave you a lot to think about!