PREVIEW
Prodigal Selves: Poems
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Four poems from the beginning...
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prodigal selves
i welcome you
i welcome you all
all of me from every day
every day of pain
and confusion
every day of curiosity
pleasure
love
and enrapturement
every day of hatred
greed
recklessness
and rage
i welcome you from every day there ever was
every day that is today
and every day that ever there will be
open arms
no questions asked
no rationale required
i am here
infinitely
for you
all of me from every single day
there is room
for us all
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meditation
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uncoiling the false ribs wrapped around my chest
while holding myself in a gentle steady light
i shift my mind like a parent cradling a newborn –
in slow responsive awe
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battle cry
tending moments quiet enough
where i can feel the tightness coming on
where i can hear the clank
of the dull bronze armor being hooked
in place
just under my skin
preparing me for a battle
that no longer exists
plates of armor nearly everywhere
so thin i almost don’t notice
unless i tend moments quiet enough
where i can hear the clank
and watch
as my light begins
to close in
on itself
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i can hold you differently
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and so it was that i felt the terror
of betraying myself
the internal industry of war
decades of battles cutting into my ground
buried fast with putrid mud
and covered over with sod and hedges
i didn’t even know that i was forgetting
those old distant fields
but i did a good job
i strangely treasured the ignorance
though finally
it just cost too much
this forgetting cost the best of me
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the unknown
and unmarked
best
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but i have been preparing for you
rise up
reach out
be felt in your rich resonance!
my heart is ready for this sorrow
i can hold you differently
i can feel you now
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i can honor the fallen
they shall be born again
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