The New Notebook

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I am invited by these blank pages

to bear into the light

the secrets of my soul

my night visions and wild imaginings

fantastical whimsies

and deepest truths

born onto these waiting lines

magic erupting from my soul’s well

each babbling bubble brimming

with something eager to be fixed to paper

transfigured from infinite potential

into eternalized reality

a golem of ink and words

let loose to walk unknown paths along others’ souls

leaving quiet footsteps which will fade

like water on concrete after a rain

my eyes follow the pen strokes

they are rhythmic like the rising

and falling of meditative breath made manifest

casting a spell of freedom and release

-gws

Word Therapy

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Poetry is my word therapy

It is where I take the overwhelming abstractness of my emotions

And mold it into something comprehensible

Taking the feelings inside

And creating a scaffolding made of words on which to hang

Stanzas containing descriptions, analogies, and written visualizations

I am able to take what is chaotic and undefined

And give it structure and meaning

Like a potter transforms a formless lump of clay

Into a beautiful piece of finished pottery

A manipulation born of skill, practice, and talent

Which creates a piece that describes, conveys, and evokes

The essence of the soul on fire

-gws

Small Spaces

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The Divine is grand, vast, expansive

But, that is not the most wonderful part

The Divine is also the small things

The small spaces

The moment between inhalation and exhalation

The quiet between heartbeats

The magical place between waking and dreaming

The extra squeeze of an embrace

The snuggling in of a small child

The flicker of a precious memory

The holding of a hand

And the quiet company of another life

The Divine is macro and micro

It is present in the moments of weightless anticipation

And the moments of great emotional release

If we’re mindful and present

We can spot both the large and small moments of

Divinity in the world and our own lives

-gws

Never, Not Ever

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Oh, my tiny heart

My darling child

Never, not ever

Will there be a time

That I will not love you

You, whose heart beat beneath mine

You, whose tiny head rested on my chest

You, whose tiny hand disappeared within mine

Never, not ever

Will there be a time

That I will not love you

No matter how big your feelings

No matter how loud your rage

No matter how paralyzing your fears

Never, not ever

Will there be a time

That I will not love you

When you find yourself in trouble

Or if we disagree

Or we get angry with each other

Never, not ever

Will there be a time

That I will not love you

-gws

Woman

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Maiden lover

Nurturing mother

Crone warrior

Stronger than diamond

Softer than down

Dirt smudged skin

Beneath a crooked crown

Defining her rules

Living her truth

Not letting others

Assign her worth

Not property

Nor accessory

Not trophy

Nor maid

Not defined by the laws

That man has made

She walks through the world

Defined as she wishes

Not seeking her value

In a title of Mrs.

She writes her story

Each ink stroke her own

And defines her world

By the truth in her bones

-gws

Happy International Women’s Day

The Next Right Choice

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All we can do is make the next right choice

Sometimes, that choice is easy

Sometimes it is the hardest thing you can do

What do you do when you get to the end of the map

Where do you go when you can’t go back

And forward is so uncertain

You know there is something beyond

But you don’t know what it looks like

How hard it’s going to be

Because there’s no way it can be easy

The unknown is rarely easy

-gws

Rage

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Rage is dark rust red like clotted blood

Balled fists and hot tears

White hot like molten iron

Sharp and vicious as a cooled blade

Shrill keening and worn out sobs

Forged into quiet, constantly simmering fury

Long, silent, anguished screams into pillows

And inside lonely vehicles at 60 miles per hour

With the music turned up loud to drown out the ragged

Sound shaking free of its mooring

Now a million dancing embers

Just waiting for the right bluster to ignite again

-gws

Space Between

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Do I exist in the space between your thoughts

Am I squeezed in as an annotation to your chaos

Do I fit in the emptiness between your heartbeats

Or the space between your breaths

Am I shoved into the shadowed alcoves of your mind

All I know is it’s dark and apocalyptic here

Where ever here is

-gws

Something Greater

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When my heart is heavy I turn to you

I know you are there

waiting for me with open arms

offering comfort, love, serenity

I know you cannot remove my trials

I also know that you can help lighten the load by taking my tears

my sorrows

my angers, resentments, and animosities

you do not judge me for my smallness or my pettiness

you do not scold me for not making the next right choice

you love me

you hold my hurt like a mother does a child and kiss it away

the injury remains, but the sting is less

because your love is a salve like no other

you gift me with words and inspiration

so that I can bare my soul’s truth into the light

and start to let it go so that I am not transfigured

by my own anger and sorrow

you take my heartache and hand me joy

and you do it while reminding me that every day’s sunset

makes way for the next morning’s dawn where hope is born anew

-gws