Fractured | Reunited
(Featured in Liberty)
A wound was festering inside me,
Awakening me at 2 am
To sob for an hour.
“Sob?” asked a friend.
Yes, I replied, sobbing is essential.
Cathartic.
Release and relief.
Without thoughts or stories.
Intimate and pure
As the night sky.
Opening my heart enough,
Clearing the space enough,
To feel the birds outside my window
Dancing inside me this morning,
To bring me back home
To knowing
Fractured | Reunited
Not as binary
But as a perpetual state
Of becoming.
Feeling the universe’s eternal dance of
Annihilation | Reunification
Within me,
From deep inside my cells
To the body that exists
Beyond my body.
Fractured Reunited Fractured
Reunited Fractured Reunited
Fractured Reunited Fractured
Reunited Fractured Reunited
Fractured Reunited Fractured
Reunited Fractured Reunited
Always forever.
I wrote this poem at the end of 2020 and it was recently published in a collection called Liberty, edited by Pamela Eakins and featuring poetry from women writers. It's on my mind this week because I will be reading the poem on Thursday, September 30 at 5 pm PT (6 pm MT | 7 pm CT | 8 pm ET) as I join with thirty co-contributors to share selections from the book. Join us if you can! The Zoom information is below.
As I reflect on the poem today, I experience the poem in a new way. I also realize how much has shifted in me over the past ten months. The words themselves came as a sort of outburst, a cascade that released the pressure of so much pent-up emotion. Looking back, I can recognize that this release set off a slow process of cocooning. As the year went on, I felt myself gradually pulling inward more and more. And, somewhat paradoxically, the more inward I drew, the more I felt a sense of expanded space.
Until finally, more recently, it felt as if the space inside myself widened so much that it encompassed everything. A sense of lightness and spontaneity that I hadn't felt in a long time began to unfurl within me, like a bud gently blossoming from my heart, extending its petals through my trunk and out my limbs. I don't know what this newfound feeling will bring. For now, I'm practicing appreciating the density of my body even as I enjoy the lightness of my spirit. And I'm remembering that in this eternal dance, the reunion will at some point give way to another fracture, only to return again.
Sending love,
Jennifer
Join us! Liberty. Breath Death Soul Live Book Launch Thursday, September 30, 2021 5 pm PT | 6 pm MT | 7 pm CT | 8 pm ET No pre-registration By the Sisters of the Holy Pen Edited by Pamela Eakins Join by Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81423090230?pwd=ZmRWOVFxRUdvd0ZLdUtnRnBsOGtEUT09
Meeting ID: 814 2309 0230
Passcode: 724749
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