Hello friends,
another beautiful guest post today! I am so honored to share a poem from Karla Mendoza, who I’ve known and respected for years, and I am so glad you get to learn from her here today.
Karla’s Substack:
karla mendoza arana is an interdisciplinary Afro-Peruvian artist, scholar, writer, and activist. She is a grassroots theologian, a runaway pastor, and a forever student of Liberation theologies. Karla grew up in Lima, Peru, and the Midwest of the United States. She recently graduated with her Master of Arts in Religion from Union Theological Seminary, with a concentration on Migration and Religion in the Afro-Diasporic Experience.
She loves finding new coffee shops, dancing salsa, cooking Peruvian food, laughing, and FC Barcelona.
Enjoy this gorgeous poem, can’t wait to read yours.
balm
Did you plant the violets in the garden,
or was it the sparrows, the rain, and the sun?
Were you there when the bumblebee stopped to rest?
a microcosm of life growing unsanctioned by the state
They surveil our wounds
as if our invisibility wasn’t required to survive
My bones undergo a painful growth
(re)membering the day I held your hand
One last time
Pachamama llora por las fronteras
imposed on her memory
unhesitatingly, I unite with her cry
Her memory has become ours
On the spring day when the moon cast her shadow
The rivers whisper my name
and the violets adorn the corners of the once majestic staircase
“They’re good for broken hearts, you know?”
Exclaims my love as we walk down
So I hold on to the violets in my clasped hands
for every time I couldn’t scream
for the fronteras que ni la tierra quiere
for our surveilled wounds
A balm in the middle of the city
Freely given, refusing
to let our unsung heartache
be the only story we tell
There is a balm to soothe any soul.
Where will I find mine today?
Will it be in the rain that nourishes the earth?
Will it be in the tender shoots pushing up through the soil?
Where is the balm for my weary limbs?
Is it in the unguent created for healing?
Is it in the exercise that strengthens weak, tired muscles?
There is a balm to soothe any soul.
What if the soul feels broken beyond repair?
Will it be in the kindness of friends and strangers?
Will it be found in peaceful dreams at night.
Creator divine grant healing,
be the balm for so many wounded souls.
I had to look it up
What’s the difference between a salve and a balm?
Similar in ingredients yet different in texture and purpose.
Both are for healing and a balm, thicker in consistency, also protects from outside elements.
The winds, the rains, even the sunshine on a hot day.
Each with their purpose yet each with their own ability to harm.
Today I’m finding Trust as a Balm for the things I think disastrous. How often have I thought the worst only to experience the Balm of Kindness and Love covering my heart - as a shadow. Do I trust this Balm will always be there?
It’s strange, isn’t it? Even the darkness can be a Balm producing Light.
Again I am grateful. And I am in awe.
Oh! What a wondrous thing this thing called Life. Especially when I recognize that
It all works together.
A Balm of Unity.
A Balm of Comfort.
A Balm of Love.
Healing. Protecting. Soothing.
Balm.