Category Archives: healing

35–“Here I Am” from “Frazzle”

“…where hard things bob up
from the ocean of minutes and it could
be just innocuous clumps of seaweed

just brush off…or it could be
a landmine adrift, set off by casual touch….”

From poem 36, “Here I Am,” in my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/LosxbOXrvyU

I wrote this poem seven years ago at a very different time, but it seems like I wrote it for today. Trying to avoid the darkness of anxiety feels very familiar. You?

For more poem videos from the “Frazzle” series

33–“Soon Enough” from “Frazzle”

“…as if I could
plan my time to feel

as if you did not
understand, but…

you have never faced
such circumstance.…”

From poem 33, in Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen to the entire poem here: https://youtu.be/XKPl1u3gySk

I will say only this: It is essential to be kind…to ourselves and those around us. And be as generous as you can. It is for our own good. Who do we want to be?

For more poem videos from “Frazzle”

32–“Thanksgiving Grieving” from “Frazzle”

“I can see him sitting there
so plainly on the kitchen chair,
cutting giblets for stuffing and gravy,
wanting help or company…”

From poem 32, “Thanksgiving Grieving,” in my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/1JMbsGNangA

I prepare in the moment for the day’s reading. Although I wrote the book and have read it many times, I don’t look ahead at what poems are coming. As it turned out, I was taken by surprise by today’s poem, “Thanksgiving Grieving,” which was very emotional to read. The first several times through I couldn’t get to the end without tears. I wanted to skip this one (who would notice, really?) and yet…

I’m committed to this task set out before me: one poem a day, from start to finish of “Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine.” It is not about perfect performance in an ideal world, rather it is you and me sitting at my old maple kitchen table and I’m reading as honestly and as best I can right then. My purpose in that moment is to deliver that poem. Always a part of me wants to get it “right.” Even if that is safer, it may not be as human, as healing, as powerful. I trust. I stay with my inner guides, breathe, do my best, and let it go, as open-hearted as I can.

Note: We are still at the beginning of the book. This poem begins a long narrative thread about our parents, my Dad who had passed on years before, and the other three remaining. All woven into the fullness of life.

Is there some loss you have already dealt with, that can overtake you unexpectedly? Blessings.

For more poem videos from the “Frazzle” series

29–“Purpose?” from “Frazzle”

The uterus as metaphor, as symbol, as well as the actual physical organ, is one ongoing thread in Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine. (As you will see, one of the later poems gave the book its title.) Many women “of a certain age” have issues with the winding down of their fertility, the cycling of their hormones. Some women grieve the loss, some celebrate the freedom, the ending of one life purpose and

“…continual re-birthing of…
my Life”

Poem 29, “Purpose?” in my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing. Listen here: https://youtu.be/o-olV3JyPAU

What is your story?

For more poem videos in the “Frazzle” series

24–“Melting” from “Frazzle”

From “Melting,” from my book, Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine: Poems of Grace, Hope, and Healing.

“…This puddle of you,
this chrysalis,
this butterfly in the making,

in transition,
that familiar rough patch
neither here nor there….”

Although I wrote this poem in 2009, under quite different circumstances, I am again in that place right now. You?

Listen here to poem 24: https://youtu.be/ahlWyKgPyi4