Rabbit Room day three: Family

 
This is how a family shapes you.
Simply by being there,
just always being there.
Words that settle in the skin,
maybe forgiveness;
words of death and
words of life. Bursts
of laughter and silly dances,
flashes of anger and deep regret.
The times you couldn’t
afford anything but love,
and times of plenty
you took for granted.
Decisions made without
your approval, decisions made
with your voice as part of the choir,
decision made for you
as an unspoken blessing.
Sometimes you forget what
a many-splendored thing
a family is. Sometimes
it is a gift. Sometimes
it is not. You must decide
when to get your hands dirty.
Decide who’s the potter.
Decide who’s the clay.
 
*
 
Decide who’s the clay.
Decide who’s the potter –
when to get your hands dirty.
You must decide. It is not
sometimes, it is a gift.
A family is a many splendored thing.
Sometimes you forget.
It is an unspoken blessing,
a decision made for you,
your voice part of a choir.
A decision made without
your approval. You take for granted
times of plenty, times
you couldn’t afford anything more than love.
Bursts of laughter and dancing,
flashes of anger, deep regret.
Words of life.
Words of death.
Maybe: forgiveness.
Those words settle in the skin,
always just there.
Simply being there.
This is how a family shapes you.

Rabbit Room day two: Connection

Let me tell you about distance.
The emptiness of your mouth feeding
my mouth. Tasting your skin
but forgetting your name.
Wondering which words
will bridge the gap between
hope and sorrow, or regret
for all the said and unsaid
things. How to build
into each other. Which tools
to break or mend. And,
here, now, we negotiate
the terms. We entreat or we beg.
What can be offered.
What can be taken.

Rabbit Room day one: Invitation

you said you are welcome here
and maybe i was 

but there were suspicions
or i was suspicious
or maybe you were
or maybe i didn’t believe you
because there have been days
of sitting alone and longing
for someone to call my name
or nights spent alone
longing for someone
to call my name
and call it repeatedly
and call it until it is a mantra
an incantation
an oath
a promise to appear
in the doorway
perhaps with coffee
and croissants
or some flowers
maybe tulips or birds-of-paradise
or a hand extended
or my name on your lips

an [other] #NaPoWriMo?

Rabbit Room Poetry is facilitating a poem-a-day challenge for the month of November!

With #NaNoWriMo officially done, this is a hijacking after my own heart.

Find them on Substack for daily poetry prompts designed to kickstart your creativity and help you start or continue a writing rhythm.

Their inaugural theme is Words of Community.

From their Substack:

"Our creative work—and our lives—are richer when we are together. The breadth and depth of our connections with those around us can not only catalyze our own spiritual growth but also help transform the world. Through this year’s theme, we’ll ponder not only the role of interdependence in creative acts but also the power of community in our own lives."

Every Sunday, they’ll provide a list of daily prompts for the coming week. You can subscribe to Rabbit Room Poetry at the link above to have that list delivered right to your inbox, or you can follow along in their Substack Notes, where they'll be sharing each day’s prompt as well.

If you wish, you can share your poems by leaving them in the comments section on each note or on the weekly prompt post.

As a way to develop some illusion of discipline I will attempt to do each prompt and will post them here on the blog (and perhaps on the Rabbit Room Substack as well).

Join me (or at least follow along)!

#NaPoWriMo - day thirty

(find me a map)
(help me find the stars)
the paths are overgrown.
(find me a map)
covered in stones.
open the tomb.
we’ll gather at the appropriate time.
don’t worry; i’ll remind you
bring flowers.
bring words.
bring stories.
bring friends.
it’s time to decide which stories to tell.
make friends with the ghosts.
rouse yourself.
listen:
you will be missed.
you were always beautiful.
we keep expecting you to be here.
we face the difficult truth.
we wear our serious faces.
we consider the odds.
we are surrounded by friends and lovers.
hopes and dreams/ thoughts and prayers.
prepare the books.
a palimpsest of loss.
the bones of regret.
broken by time.
forever scarred by the sacred.
(find me a map)