HAPPY FRIDAY FROM MY PERSONAL CIRCLE OF HELL!
I’m currently sitting amongst some absolute chaos as we rearrange and pack up our house so that a company can come in and de-lead the place, so we’re clearing out for a week with the dogs and kids in tow, and I’m gonna be real with you: I am not having fun!
buy a 100-year-old house they said!!!! it’ll be fun they said!!! kill me.
When I get overwhelmed (or, I guess I should say, more overwhelmed than usual) my first instinct is always to turn to poetry. This week’s Friday Five offers you five of my favorites, with prompts for diving in and showing up.
your friday five!
five poems to inspire you into creating for good
Katie Harris, “Why Write Love Poetry in a Burning World”
To train myself to find in the midst of hell
what isn't hell.
The body bald
cancerous but still
beautiful enough to
imagine living the body
washing the body
replacing a loose front
porch step the body chewing
what it takes to keep a body
going—
This scene has a tune
a language I can read a door
I cannot close I stand
within its wedge
a shield.
Why write love poetry in a burning world?
To train myself in the midst of a burning world
to offer poems of love to a burning world.
What is the love poetry — literal or figurative — that you’re creating right now? What does that work require you to notice, especially in these moments? What does that noticing feel like? How does it change you?
Prompt: Notice three things worth loving — yes, amidst everything. What made you notice them? How did you feel? Create about it.
Andrea Gibson, ”Wellness Check”
In any moment,
on any given day,
I can measure
my wellness
by this question:
Is my attention on loving,
or is my attention on
who isn’t loving me?
Where is your attention right now? Where are you putting your energy, your time, your effort? What percentage of your mind is focused on the negatives — on what’s wrong in the world, on who is “more successful” than you, on what you feel you’re doing “wrong” or could be doing better? What would it feel like to shift that perspective? What would it change?
Prompt: For one day, write down every negative, despairing, or self-deprecating thought you have. In the following day, identify something positive that counters or challenges each of those thoughts. What do you notice? Create about it.
Hannah Eve Levy, “A Quitter’s Manifesto”
as a child, I quit everything I started. quit
ballet, tap dance, gymnastics, ceramics.
playing the flute, playing the piano, playing
chess. quit knitting and singing and making
bracelets and beaded jewelry. I once joined
student council (for college applications),
but then I quit that, too. I went to school
for journalism but became a poet instead.
I never got fired, but I quit every startup
I worked for. quit jobs that paid good money
to do shitty work and jobs that paid shit
to do good for the world. I quit healthy
things, like doing pilates and being vegetarian.
I once quit alcohol and and caffeine,
but then I quit trying to quit and now
I eat what I want. I try not to quit friendship,
but friends have quit me. I call myself
a quitter and maybe it’s true. Or maybe
I’m just in love with endings and beginnings.
Maybe I’m in love with everything too much,
to stay for any longer than wonder allows.
How often do you stay with things past the point that wonder allows? What is it that keeps you there — or, conversely, what’s stopping you from quitting? What would be the worst case scenario if you quit, or even just scaled back? What would be the best?
Prompt: Set a timer for ten minutes, and jot down everything that comes to mind when you think about the idea of “quitting” — defined as broadly as you’d like. What came up for you? Create about it.
Ursula K. Le Guin, “Hymn to Time”
Time says “Let there be”
every moment and instantly
there is space and the radiance
of each bright galaxy.
And eyes beholding radiance.
And the gnats’ flickering dance.
And the seas’ expanse.
And death, and chance.
Time makes room
for going and coming home
and in time’s womb
begins all ending.
Time is being and being
time, it is all one thing,
the shining, the seeing,
the dark abounding.
How do you feel about time? Is it a limited resource? A source of potential? Does thinking about time make you stressed? Anxious? Hopeful? Does considering time bring a sense of urgency, or of openness? Do you see time as finite or infinite? How does the way you feel about time influence the way you show up, creatively and for your community?
Prompt: Keep a log of all the moments in a given day when you find yourself conscious of time — when you check your watch, when you feel antsy about being late, when you’re counting down the seconds to something with anticipation or excitement or dread. What feelings or sensations come up most frequently when you’re noticing or thinking about time? Create about it.
Mary Oliver, “Messenger”
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.
What do you see as “your work” in this moment? What do you feel called to do, to say, to create? Is this a new calling, or one that has evolved, or one that has felt consistent to you over time? What is it about this work, this message, that resonates with you? What makes it meaningful? Why do you keep showing up?
Prompt: Write down five ways that you’re loving the world right now. Small or large, at home or in community, through your creativity or simply with your presence. What do you notice? Create about it.
See you next week!
💜Shelly
