We Are Winter Poets, the last day
Onward to Integration
Good morning friends,
Today is our last day together for this wonderful poetry series and I am so grateful for all for you.
Our final word is integration, so fitting for closing out this time together and entering into a new year. What have we integrated into ourselves so far this winter? In 2023? What do we hope to integrate in the coming season and year?
I look forward to your final poems!
Integration
I think that integration is not assimilation,
as we might dangerously believe it to be.
To integrate into society, into circles, into myself,
does not mean I disappear, that I neglect, that I forget.
Integration is taking all of me, held with care, and
believing that I can belong to all of you, too.
To integrate is to remind my child self that she is also
a part of my adult self, that we hold each other steady.
Integration is belonging, and belonging requires trust.
So I ask what integration has meant to me in past seasons,
holding steady to the dawning of winter, to the slow and steady
pulse of cold and chill, asking how I can be present to this time.
Integration is presence, acceptance, and dreaming.
And integration will pull me forward to every future iteration of who I am.
Thank you for these prompts, Kaitlin! It's been such a fun week and a half of writing poems and appreciating what others come up with. For anyone else who has been enjoying this experience of writing with a community as much as I have, I want to let you know that I'm launching a Substack at 100poems.substack.com. My personal intention for the year is to write 100+ poems, and rather than doing that alone, I've decided to share and invite others to join me. If you subscribe (it's free), you'll receive a poem from me twice per week, but the real magic will (I hope) take place in the comments section, where all subscribers are invited to share their own poems and offer encouragement to one another. Since this is a brand new idea for me, there may be some shifts as the year goes on, but my plan for now is to offer a prompt one day per week and leave the other day open. I hope to see your lovely virtual faces there!
I have not commented a lot but have kept up with the prompts and enjoyed my 2nd of your poetry series!
Sometimes I ask myself,
Which came first,
Me or the therapist?
Was I drawn to this work,
Because of my personality?
Or did it shape me?
Maybe there is not separation,
But instead an integration,
Making my self whole