I Want

I want to live in a cabin between the woods and the sea
I want to smell mossy earth and pine resin at daybreak
Wood smoke and salt air at sunset
I want to be surrounded by books and filtered sunlight
Candles, blank pages, and moonlight
I want to walk with hopes by day
And dance with dreams by night
I want to watch banana slugs explore my garden
I want to hear the chorus of crashing waves 
Gulls crying exultantly from the sky
Wind playing chase through the cypress boughs

I want to be free of the chains of expectations
Free of the weight of the looming other shoe
I wish not to drink from any more bitter cups
Fall on any more swords
Remove twisted daggers from my back
I crave peace
Beauty
Lightness
Hope
Creativity
Freedom
I crave relationships that are mutually supportive
That nurture souls
That transact in honesty
Respectfulness
Genuineness
Ease
Love

-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom
Happy NaPoWriMo! Here’s my Day 8 poem called I Want #poetry #wordsmithing #poem #writer #wordswishesandwisdom #poet #poetsoftiktok #poetryTok #NaPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo2024 #poetryreading
♬ A Gentle Sunlight – James Quinn

Dear Sister

Dear sister
I see you
How your heart is bleeding
How your soul is aching
You are transforming
Becoming so much more 
Than you imagined you were or could be
You are becoming a diamond
Under all of the pressure
One worthy to be the center piece
Of your own glorious crown
I can't wait to see how you shine

-gws

Generational Trauma

Do onto others as you wish to be done onto
This is the call
Cast off the shackles of
Abuse
Neglect
Mistreatment 
Harm
The scars that mar your ancestors 
The scars that mar you
The greatest gift given in life
Free will 
Wield it like a craftsman 
Hold it like a pen and
Rewrite your story 
Erase the patterns from your pages
Show your children that you
Can reshape the stars in the sky
Show them how to heal in the light of the moon
And the bright beacon of day
No future is written in stone 
No fate inevitable 
Let it begin here
By deciding the pain of the past 
Ends here

-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom
Happy NaPoWriMo! Here’s my Day 5 poem called Generational Trauma. #poetry #wordsmithing #poem #writer #wordswishesandwisdom #poet #poetsoftiktok #poetryTok #NaPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo2024 #poetryreading
♬ Metamorphosis – David Clavijo

Unlearn

I need to unlearn your touch 
The sound of your breathing 
Next to me in the dark
I need to unlearn a lifetime 
Of everything about you

-gws

Getting Over You (and Other Divine Interventions)

The Universe intervened
In our amber-trapped lives
Cleaving us asunder 
Now that your umbra is clearing
I begin to see the Universe has
Gifted me infinite sunrises 
Bursting with innumerable possibilities
After half my life with you
Standing you up
Holding you up
I find myself suddenly free
Of the responsibility of you
I delight in the joy of doing anything
Without your judgment
I relax remembering that there are no 
Relentless expectations to navigate
I revel in a full night's uninterrupted sleep
I relinquish more and more tension from my body
As each day passes without you
A single divine gift containing 
All the possibilities I can dream of
I will not get over you in a day
You have left me a moonscape
Desolate and damaged
I will redeem and reclaim myself
Both shadow and light
Ever shifting and changing
Just like the magnificent moon

-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom
Happy NaPoWriMo! Here’s my Day 3 poem called Getting Over You (and Other Divine Interventions). #poetry #wordsmithing #poem #writer #wordswishesandwisdom #poet #poetsoftiktok #poetryTok #NaPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo2024 #poetryreading
♬ original sound – GWS

Liminal State

I exist in a liminal state
A being 
And not a being

Grief ebbs and flows in king tides
Emptying me
Submerging me
Stealing away my breath
With its pressure changes
Feelings grow in question marks
Within my hollow chest
Proliferating like fungus in the fall
Inside of my being that is not a being

Emptiness overflowing with nothingness
Destruction and restoration
Warring to fill the immeasurable void
Shaped like my cremated heart
Pulsing with unfathomable aching
Testing the tolerances of 
My being that is not a being

It is surreal to be and not be
To experience the reality of the question 
Posed by Master Shakespeare 
In rhyme and sonnet so long ago
To understand that one can be both
A being and not a being

-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom
Happy NaPoWriMo! Here’s my Day 2 poem called Liminal State. #poetry #wordsmithing #poem #writer #wordswishesandwisdom #poet #poetsoftiktok #poetryTok #NaPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo2024 #poetryreading
♬ Serenity – Hariseno

Redemption

Sometimes
The simple act of cleaning a toilet
Can feel like redemption 

-gws

Step Back

Everyone who has ever loved you
Have put their hands up and
Taken a step back
Now they are looking at me
Wondering if now is when
I will finally do the same

-gws

Rage Fire

The truth has lit a rage fire in my belly
Where there was guilt and pity
There is now a simple aching coal
Burning so hot it challenges the sun

-gws

The Rocky Path

I’m walking between worlds 
Both in a nightmare
And waking from one
Navigating the rocky path
One footfall at a time
Calling on my ancestors 
Those women who each
Did the same in their own way 
As I step out of darkness 
Into the healing light of freedom 

-gws