This is one of those times when I use the blog as more a repository of thoughts I wish to keep than an accounting of my days… but I will say I finished my latest WIP yesterday, and am in that liminal space of “is it reasonably good enough, or does it need to age a bit while I fiddle.” I’m playing the piano a lot and cleaning house while I figure it out. And Tricia’s helping, by sending me the poetry she hears in her apparently amazing yoga class. Here’s another one:
BEING HUMAN
I wonder if the sun debates dawn
some mornings
not wanting to rise
out of bed
from under the down-feather horizon
if the sky grows tired
of being everywhere at once
adapting to the mood
swings of the weather
if clouds drift off
trying to hold themselves together
make deals with gravity
to loiter a little longer
I wonder if rain is scared
of falling
if it has trouble
letting go
if snowflakes get sick
of being perfect all the time
each one
trying to be one-of-a-kind
I wonder if stars wish
upon themselves before the die
if they need to teach their young
how to shine
I wonder if shadows long
to just-for-once feel the sun
if they get lost in the shuffle
not knowing where they’re from
I wonder if sunrise
and sunset
respect each other
even though they’ve never met
if volcanoes get stressed
if storms have regrets
if compost believes in life
after death
I wonder if breath ever thinks of suicide
if the wind just wants to sit
still sometimes
and watch the world pass by
if smoke was born
knowing how to rise
if rainbows get shy back stage
not sure if their colors match right
I wonder if lightning sets an alarm clock
to know when to crack
if rivers ever stop
and think of turning back
if streams meet the wrong sea
and their whole lives run off-track
I wonder if the snow
wants to be black
if the soil thinks she’s too dark
if butterflies want to cover up their marks
if rocks are self-conscious of their weight
if mountains are insecure of their strength
I wonder if waves get discouraged
crawling up the sand
only to be pulled back again
to where they began
Read the rest here.
~by Naima, Copyright © 2015 Climbing PoeTree, all rights reserved.
All that the earth has to do is …be.
In all of our striving and reaching, may we, too, take some time to breathe into who we are: humans, being.
Thanks to Carol Varsalona for hosting Poetry Friday at Beyond Literacy Link; click though for more poetry.
So yeah, I’m so far behind on blog reading it’s crazy. When Nitya (isn’t that such a typical yoga instructor name?) read the poem, I latched onto the line “I wonder if the snow wants to be black” and repeated it to myself over and over. I don’t think I heard the other poems, as I was so determined to remember that line so.
There is so much to love about this poem. It’s one that I read and think, “I wish I had written that!” I’ve spent some time exploring the site. There is much there to love as well. Thank you for sending this poem out into the world even further. It deserves to be loved.
Yay, YOU and the WIP that is in finishment mode.
I am gobsmacked by that poem.
@MaryLee: Indeed! I want to savor and save and repeat the words. I hope including the link encourages more people to discover them; the poetry team is apparently a Brooklyn phenomenon.
Huzzah for work being completed!!! May your weekend be filled with rest, respite, and small celebrations.
Wow. Love the poem. That’s some yoga class!
Congrats on finishing the WIP. Wish I could hear your piano playing. 🙂
@jama-j Oh, darlin’, no. No, you don’t wish that. But, you’re lovely to think so!!
Yeah, wouldn’t you love to hear poetry in a yoga class!? It would be a beautiful distraction from the fact that I can’t breathe in most of the poses…