I’m working hard to get my poetry collection together for publication. Untethered Love is a response, of sorts, to my first collection, When Can We Be Soft?: Poems of Female Resilience. In that collection, I explored the social behaviors and expectations that force women to be “strong,” never able to let our guard down and just be. In this new collection, I imagine a world where we are free to express our feelings of love in various contexts, including the act of loving ourselves. Ironically, or maybe not, self love has been the most difficult set for me to write. My hope is that if we can imagine it, we can one day make it real.
This poem is the newest in the collection. I took this photo while visiting Salt Lake City, and it’s been sitting, waiting for the right inspiration. What better expression of self love than to acknowledge the difficult environment you grew from and embrace all the unique parts of you that flourished despite that rocky start.
Fertile ground produces
Brilliant blooms
But even the desert
Sprouts spectacles
Your roots go deep
Grounded in purpose
Your stalks grow tall
Stable and strong
Your leaves spread wide
Steeped in wisdom
And like the Black-Eyed Susan
Drowning in a sea of brown
Your petals solicit attention
Matured and miraculous
Your very existence
The verity of your thriving
Is the promise of perseverance
Others only hope for