I’ve got a wonderful poet for you to sit with today.
My dear friend Madison Murphy Barney is here to give wisdom and care.
Madison is an Indigenous sister, author, doula, and story-driven strategist.
“An enchanting nature-based guide to living more in deeper relationship with ourselves, our communities, and our planet by embodying the innate qualities of the wondrous mycelial world.”
Subscribe to Madison’s substack!
Today’s poem from Madison is such a gift, and I hope the creativity with which it’s shared inspires you in your poems today.
Today’s word is salve.
A Salve For Our Wounds Serves 8.3 billion Ingredients 52 moments of connection A pinch of rebellion 1 cup of courage to let what needs to crumble, crumble 1 pound of creativity to build what wants to be born 3 nights off from all the noise, distraction 1 oversized pot of soup, shared down the road 6 oz of slowness, presence 10 oz of tears for what could have been, 10 more for what will be 1 cozy spot at home within ourselves 16 ways to meet every need. Abundance, abundance, abundance my dear A dash of a bird’s morning song A drizzle of awe for the webs we weave A dollop of “I believe in us,” and another of “a new morning on the horizon” Instructions Combine together in a large, wooden bowl with your beloved flowers, medicines, and prayers. Mix thoroughly with the gifts of your Ancestors and generations to come. Apply daily, or as needed to yourself and those you meet along the way.




The first word every morning
Salve Calliope
Salve Euterpe
Salve Clio
To say you are seen
Salve Thalia
Salve Urania
Salve Terpsichore
You are known
Salve Erato
Salve Melpomene
Salve Polyhymnia
You are safe, you are well, you are whole.
Have you been saved?
Oh yes, every day something is saving me:
birdsong, poetry, music, mutual aid.
Have you been salved?
Oh yes, daily salvation abounds:
silliness, friendship, hope.
Soulful solace shoos away scarcity,
stitches the scars from severing,
soothes the somber mood and softens reactive severity,
smooths my fretting forehead,
settling settling settling the swirling sediment into sacred clarity.