In these strange days I can’t help but wonder stranger things I’ve heard it said that life here on this earth is a graduate class for the soul You see, we are not bodies with a soul We are, instead, souls with bodies We have chosen to walk and talk and hurt and love We have made an agreement with Oneness To take a fraction of what we are And condense down into this biological machine called a body We have chosen to leave Oneness to become one Single Alone amongst others who are also alone I can’t help but wonder what we are meant to learn What don’t we already know through our original experience of Oneness Maybe it’s the simple act of experiencing the finite A contrast to already being so familiar with the infinite What an existence we must lead in Oneness To allow us to be so curious that we willingly come to THIS place Full of fear and uncertainty Cruelty and chaos But also kindness and compassion And love Love with all its grit and glamour Its risk and reward How brave are we to give up the infinite NOW of Oneness For the finite uncertainty of Earth time Where those around us that we learn to love and cherish are Too, bound by the limits of a linear existence Where love and loss are the rhythms of life’s tides upon this world Such contrast and contradiction I suppose there’s beauty in it Oh, to be able to know now what I will know after To be able to answer with certainty what it was all for The good and the bad To know how good of a human I was Where I helped Where I hurt Where I healed Will I miss this experience when it’s over Will I choose to return again Will you I think about all of the various mythologies of life and death I think about how more than one thing can be true at once How time and experience is such a strange soup So as the world becomes more and more outlandish As long held collective truths seem on the verge of collapse The undeniable feeling that something new is being birthed Through this terror on the back of a desperate hope I can’t help but ponder stranger things And my place within it all
Sometimes A woman is an island Steadfast amid the violence Of salt water and storm cloud Eyes ever focused Where the sky caresses the sea Kissed all over by the ebb and flow of waves Dancing with moontides Volcanic at times Worn and weathered and wiser As beautiful at sunrise as sunset As much a force as nature herself
I hope God is like Alanis Morissette in Dogma Child-like and irreverent Joyous and delighting Completely aware of and careful with her power
I hope God is an every-man like in Joan of Arcadia The janitor or bus driver The gym teacher or barista The stranger we choose to see and who sees us in return
I hope God is like George Burns in Oh, God! Humorously enigmatic and witty Persistent and plain A pleasant old man testing the boundaries of faith
I hope God is a cast of many players Everyone of them divinely human For we are no less God than God is us Each of us part of the other in the oneness and wonder of all things
I am the fourth daughter to do it alone Independence and survival are in my DNA Only child to a single mother Only granddaughter amongst the cousins Only kid on my block I have lived in comfortable aloneness most of my life Do not believe I do not get lonely I know how to remedy loneliness Trusted family Tribe Are always a keystroke or "hello" away
I'd prefer to have a partner To help me raise and support my children But not at the cost of my independence My independence is foundational in my peace If I cannot retain my independent spirit I cannot sustain my sense of self I need a partner who walks alongside me Who understands that I need to run in my wildness Who does not try to domesticate me Into something less than myself
Aloneness is not absence or lack It is the space where I meet myself It is the door to my Narnia The place where unfettered dreams thrive Where words waltz in ballgowns and tails Where stories bloom from rich soil Where I sit in conversation with discomfort Where I sit in conversation with my gods It is the garden of my delights And it is as precious to me as air
How do I manage alone you ask I understand that I'm never really alone I'm as alone as I choose to be I'm helped as much as I choose to ask for it It is not as perfect or simple as these stanzas may imply But the essence of my truth is here Simplified Distilled into a comprehensible version Of my vast and complex reality A demonstration of shifting perspective Being alone carries so much oppressive connotation I choose to experience it as a necessary liberation Allowing me to navigate life by my own north star Inspiring me to never lose sight of myself again
I stand with Lady Hecate in her place of power The Great Crossroad The intersection of past and present Lessons and possibility She holds her lantern aloft Illuminating my options I can see that each step Each choice Leads to another nexus Another crossroad For life is a spiderweb of crossroads An infinite collection of choices Interconnecting to plot our life's course In this moment of perfect presence I breathe I reach out with my intuition With deep faith and trust I step forward Toward a future of my own choosing
Women! Do not center your lives around men Pleasing Appeasing We are not the prey for their predator Though some argue nature made it so
We are Medusa's progeny Serving oleander sweet tea And Aqua Tofana cocktails We carry the legacies of Lilith Hecate and the Morrigan Skywoman and Diana of the Hunt In our bones
We are born with cunning woven into our shadows Placed there by the midwives and wise-women Kitchen witches and herbalists Shaman and priestesses Who came before us
We have our own form of politics Whispered around washing wells and sewing circles Book clubs and coffee tables We don our poison rings and hat pins Let them think our docility safe While we keenly observe and note and remember
It is time to end the war waged upon our bodies The raping of our spirit The subjugation of our gender We are the gateway of life We break ourselves open through blood and pain To do the Goddess's work of creation
Too long have we allowed the world to think us Weak Helpless Foolish Simple Incapable We must remind the world of our strength
Boudicca was beaten and her daughters raped And in her rage she waged war against Rome Joan d'Arc stood against the English and the Church A God-touched, heretic, peasant child whose heart would not burn Harriet Tubman survived the travesties of slavery Another God-touched woman who delivered 70 other souls to freedom And we know there are so many more like them
Though we may not find our names etched in history We are no less powerful than those who are Our lives are OUR CHOICE We are not chattel nor trophies We are creation gifted autonomy It is our divine right to wield our lives as we see fit
Let them vilify us as Succubi Mad women Uppity bitches And cunts
We know we are Goddesses Priestesses Witches And warriors
We are exhausted We are fed up We are wrathful The Divine Feminine rises The world is set ablaze around us But we are not tied to the pyre We choose to look the world dead in the eye And dance while it burns
I smoked a joint with the moon She insisted it would allow us to see the world's beauty better As herbal clouds drifted lazily across her round face She rambled dreamily about the midnight sea's endless dance with her voluptuous celestial body Spoke stanzas of star songs Sang of wild wolf hunts and their howling choruses Described forest galleries full of freshly woven spider webs bejeweled with moon-dazzled dew She waxed lyrical about the endless stream of hopes and prayers whispered to her Giggled as she fondly recounted the numerous myths humans had crafted about her I listened contentedly Basking in her hazy light My heavy-lidded eyes glistening half moons themselves Safely ensconced in her keeping
I will not fear I will not falter I will not yield I am the great storm coming I will rattle the stars
My freedom will mean something The wicked will not haunt my thoughts I will not let the hard days win I will remain unwavering in the face of hopelessness I will climb the mountain I will not be afraid I will not survive or exist, but live
I am the rock against which the surf crashes, nothing can break me I am the spirit that cannot be broken Only I can decide what breaks me I will not be broken or tamed I will not be caged I will allow no force in the world to keep me contained I will bow to no one
I will not feel bad for doing things that bring me joy I am the dreamer who will remake the world I am elegant, feminine, and utterly wild I will not be afraid of what makes me shine brightly Mine is not a story of darkness
I see you watching The sway of my hips The set of my lips The unapologetic way I take up space You're wondering about me Imagining my mysteries Gauging if you are worthy To kneel in worship before My dark goddess displayed Exhalant in my glory I will take no audience With ordinary souls They do not ignite curiosity in me I like those who recognize Their audacity in approaching me Because my eyes show I give no fucks I do not play If I let you in Doesn't mean you get to stay I have danced with devils And cast them all out Barely a glance spared them I see you watching me What's your move
Words Wishes and Wisdom 