day 27: wisdom

a poem a day in the month of may

I’m sure some people wouldn’t connect the word wisdom with Mother Earth, but I chose the word prompts for this month, so I say it works!

I’ve been quietly sitting back and learning so much from all of you each and every day. Thank you for drawing, writing, reading, praying, creating, inviting, asking, encouraging, and sharing however that has looked for you.

A month or so ago I asked, do we write words or do words write us? Do we write stories, or do the stories write us?

I’m still not sure of the answer, but that it’s somehow both.

And I find that to be true in these tender spaces as well.

So, on to wisdom:

I have some gray hairs on my head.

I wear them with pride, noticing

sometimes one wiry one slip from the rest

and land in front of my eyes, and I smile

and say to myself wisdom.

I have wrinkles and stretchmarks

in all the right places, sometimes

seeing them in the mirror and

remembering all my body has been through,

what she has endured, and I breathe

in and out the word wisdom.

I sit in therapy, once again discovering

things about myself I didn’t know before,

a constant unfolding and connecting

the line from the past to the future,

connecting me to my child self, asking

if I can love her better, hearing her

say yes to wisdom.

I tend to the lavender plant out front

who I’ve moved from their home in one place

to a home in another, a new pot, new soil,

new surroundings, asking them to please

keep growing and keep blooming, keep

enduring the world’s ways and proclaim wisdom.

I go for a walk in the neighborhood, feeling

the pulse of Mother Earth beneath my feet,

feeling the light breeze on my face, and I

close my eyes and take ten steps, letting life

sink deep into my being, letting joy slip

in quietly and give me her unbridled wisdom.

Wordsworth once said “to begin, begin,”

and here I am, beginning again and again

and again, every time a new utterance, a new

revelation, a new journey into the promise

of a sacred and loving world who calls out wisdom, wisdom, wisdom.