big red equinox all the grasses bowed at the tips wind bent and swaying into and against one another the necks of so many giraffes leaning in worship cross the water october ignites tree branch chapell
the grass where its wettest is greenest!
bank blanket
ditch filler
low, vibrant, humming
A month full of reminders!!
Reality has set in that the Biden admin has indeed been a mere break from regularly scheduled programming. I don't really have anything to say about the election other than I'm a little embarrassed to not have seen it coming. And though I am plugged into an org (AYU!) around me who are doing the work to mitigate local systemic harms (that would have also continued under Harris), I wish I were more so. Plugged in that is. I've never been stellar at establishing a sense of belonging. I've always taken a long time to warm up & work my way into groups I want to be apart of. However this has already been a year of building better habits, so I'm pleasantly aware and reasonably confident that I am capable of change. A greater sense of personal fulfillment almost certainly lies in the same direction as getting to know my neighbors and learning how to use more power tools!
I attended an open mic for the first time in a very long time and though I didn't read, and wasn't really even identifying or identified as a poet in that space, it felt good to be there. I was also a piece of the crew who put it together, which also felt great. The even was a benefit for a Palestinian family in Gaza, and we raised a sum we could be proud of. The turn out was more than any of us had anticipated and one of the shirts I embroidered sold :)! And to someone who's general work I admire! I do wish I'd read.
Overall, November was also a month of remembering how much I care about the people I care about. Family and friends new and old and everywhere in between. I'm grateful so grateful for their space, time, and abundant joy and wisdom. My loved ones were also themselves reminders of the directions in which I want to be growing stronger and deeper and clearer. I also had a birthday, which was most certainly a catalyst of being keenly and tenderly conscious the ways I want to shift.
December was quick like a gust of wind that rushes right below the knees and picks up all the dirt and the bits and pins my pants against my claves while whipping them away from me like flags. it swept under and passed so fast all i could do was brace against it and watch all the flecks of dust dance. The moments of this month that made it into my notebook were spent out and about, in the city and elsewhere, and all the events I found/sought (myself) in/out had a couple things in common. They were all beautiful, poignant, and timely. I was lucky and grateful to be a part of each space I inhabited, from the theatre to my grandparents livingroom. They highlighted and interrogated the layered climates in which 2024 closed. A raging genocide, policy crises that will impact all of our lives for decades to come, that connection and friendship will prevail despite and against it all. And I found myself repeatedly confronted with vivid and clear reminders to re-examine how I'm engaging with the people and systems around me. I'm writing this in mid January and I don't feel like being specific so that's where I'll leave it.
I caught a glimpse of a hawk. it appeared for the briefest moment as a twisting flash of sharp white, a cloth hurled upward. It then imediately vanished into the fuzzy grey of the trees.
At pickerel lake the chill of the air felt opalescent. Clear like a bell, like it would echo given the chance. it was so so splendidly still.