For the young woman I mentor who is incarcerated again. (This poem is a new fairy tale/myth with real world monsters. It’s linked to the Poetics prompt at dVerse Poets Pub. http://dversepoets.com/2012/03/17/poetics-once-upon-a-time/)
My Refrain (I love every aspect of you)
girl interrupted smoker
I always prod you to quit
now gum chewing
cold turkey courageous
bipolar therapy going fighter
abused and abusive
wanting to escape
you keep taking the pills
then calling the ambulance
you smile at me
ask me to pray for you
trust me implicitly
and fall asleep in my car
full of anxiety
cutting yourself, picking at scabs
calling me at six in the morning
teasing me that I’m not hard style
like Tigress in the movie that made me cry
(you too but you won’t admit it)
superb public speaker
you know all the words to the songs
your terrified inner child
diagnosed with failure to thrive
feels you have to attack
yet is capable of empathy
writing rap and doing the monster mash
eating like you’ve never been fed
got a 14 on your ACT
but I know you’re smarter than that
full of promise
and self-destruction
I love every rough edged part of you
pray every day for God
to lift the weight of the world
from your shoulders
to remove your self-harming
to give me the strength to walk alongside you
to show you that just because it hurts
doesn’t mean you should withdraw
gently, unconditionally,
I promise to be your friend
advocating on your behalf
holding sacred space for you
to breathe in
Song of the Silver Sea (transformation of the mermaid)
it is always difficult
to circumnavigate the geography
of the sleeping soul
enlightenment is an after effect
its application often rendered mute
let her recall and
she senses permeability
life beneath the surface of the water
a dissonant pastiche
story of movement: with and through
yet some part resists
only the faint glow
surrounding her bioluminescence
a dark that could only absorb
her dispersed light
that reflected on nothing
and offered no other source
did these things come consciously to impede
to weigh, as anchors
in the accounting of her heart?
she remembers only
the perception of loss, undefined
transparent as her being
something driving
guiding her to seeking
to break the surface of the silver sea
its intensity and shock!
awestruck an inept descriptor
enraptured more apt
the waves for the first time
encounter a bulwark
she is out of the flow
light emanates from elsewhere
a confounding calliope of
motion, reflection, iridescence
an encounter that topples
her perceptive paradigm
hurling her into an openness to the world
yet making her more her own
clearly defined, bounded,
more solid than ever before
the light, skipping across the water
drawing her form
reaching for the glory of a larger truth
she is momentarily fixated
as the implications encroach
she is a liminal being
a water spirit
diaphanous and chameleonic
ancient, paradoxically
new in the shifting light
an eternity in the depths, wrenched
a tectonic rupture
powerful forces
illuminating
awe recedes trailing insight and catharsis,
a shoreline in a once unbroken sea.
Sedna’s Lamentable Tale (song of woe)
homeless at the holidays
picking you up on street corners
incarcerated again and
we are drowning in sorrows
like the Inuit Goddess Sedna
once a young girl clinging
to the side of a boat
as water crashes all about
the raging sea God demands a sacrifice
so her father chops off her fingers
sending her to the abyss
to save himself
settling into the deep
with no way to brush her fine hair
she cannot disentangle herself
thrashing out of frustration
she becomes a Goddess of the sea
source of the storms
hunters must appease her
shamans sent to the icy depths
I close my eyes to feel the rhythm
sing with me the song of the silver sea
not the tragic tale of Sedna
abandoned by her tribe
Chromapoetica 
Wow. That’s all.
Thank you.
Awwww… she is still a child and yet has seen and been though so much already. Thank goodness she has you as a mentor, you seem to have a great depth of understanding both of her and of what her life is all about. Not easy to carry the responsibility of someone else ‘s well-being on our shoulders. This is such a deep and truly heart felt (By me) write Anna. I hope ‘she’ gets to read it one day and sees how much you really care about her.
I gave her the Song of the Silver Sea many months ago when she wanted me to help her write a fantasy story. She told me to write a mermaid song to inspire the heroine. I’m sure I’ll get to read her the other parts in the future. She is also a poet. Thank you for your kind words.
That definitely is quite a tale, all the moreso because it is true. I do hope she can break her patterns. At least she keeps trying. Hopefully one of these times it will take.
I never lose hope. Thank you Mary.
This touched me deeply. Such honest and heartfelt words – describing a horrible, ugly situation – I feel for the girl. Having experience of abusive I know what a knife edge it can be between health/depression- sobriety/addiction- inner peace/self harm. I just wish her the best. And as the mermaid- a perfect and tempestual metaphor. Elaborate, complex , emotional- representing all of the feelings the girl must have/must be going through. I’m really enjoying your honest , soul bareing work…
I too have varied experiences that help me see where she’s coming from and hopefully help her to the other side. Thank you for the tremendous compliment though I’ll warn you now sometimes my poetry retreats too far into my intellect. Though I’m trying for a better balance :).
This is a sad story of a young girl lost, and troubled. I pray that you will always be there to guide her.
Nice to see you Anna ~
Thank you Heaven, nice to see you too :)!
whew anna, this is like the work i do…i see them, so young and yet so broken…i am glad she has you in her life…they need someone and even if they do have families they are often so alone…really well spun….
Thanks Brian, it is heart-rending. As I’ve said before, I admire what you do.
i love that you see her….and not only what is on the surface but so much deeper…that you try to pick up her song and sing with her…and in the singing try to give her music new tunes of hope and a new direction…great work you’re doing anna..
Yes, we live in a world that seems to only have time for the surfaces and so much gets lost. Thank you Claudia, I am trying.
Anna- This really hits home with me as I find myself in your position more often than not… trying to help people like the blessed girl you write about. I say blessed b/c she is lucky to have you and I’m sure you’re a bright spot in her day!
She’s brought immense richness to my life, thank you Laurie!
incarceration is safe? an island to rebuild from? a real friend is such a powerful reference point. does she care for someone in turn perhaps having a role to play for others helps? perhaps she will have something for your book? is it possible to paint there? sentience can be terrifying. quite a lot like fierce weather at sea. deep dark unreal reality. how strange it is to step into sunshine. sometimes a lifeline is a simple thing like writing. a thread of continuity. my respect and love to you both.
At this point it may be that incarceration is better than homelessness but what are the long term reprecussions? She has considered helping professions but now I worry that she’ll never finish high school (she’s over 18). Thank you Janet for your kind words and respect. Writing is indeed a lifeline.
The greatest gift we can reeive is peace, and to deal with someone who has no idea it even exists is a challenging endeavor. A touching story, Anna. Well done; in more ways than one!
Thanks Charles, nice to see you.
She is blessed to have you in her life Anna. “holding sacred space for you
to breathe in” that is beautiful.
I am blessed to have her in my life. Thank you.
shez so lucky to have u !!!
a very touching story of that poor girl.
Thank you Jyoti :).
Incredible, Anna.
Thank you, nice to meet you.
This is enthralling as you intertwine real life poem with fable and then back to real life. The story that is not really a story, but a real person whose life you have the power to influence and nurture. As we poets take on responsibilities in the real world, counterbalancing necessary with possible, it is a tremendously profound task to remain aware of this continual, never ending struggle between the two poles of existence. When I visited at the county jail as a prayer counsellor, I used to use the lectio divina as a means to nurture this awareness amongst the inmates. In reading words and seeing how they did or did not equal out with real life was the goal, if only to make them aware of the difficult challenge, the task. Unfortunately, in these situations people often assume that there’s a right answer or that I expected them to answer the right way. It takes time and patience to instill in ourselves the awareness that there is no right answer in the school marmish way, but an answer that you make and put into practice every day and thereby make “right” by the simple fact that you live it.
I know lectio divina which was introduced to me through Centering Prayer. The Contemplative Outreach Center is in Colorado and though I am not Catholic I found the practice transformative. You make excellent points here. This poem is really three distinct pieces written at different times in our relationship (the last written yesterday) as a way for me to refocus my attention and intention. I find that processing pain through poetry allows me to be more available, loving, and attentive to the present. However, I believe all art is spiritual practice.
Anna, I’m so sorry to hear about your mentee. Your poems here are wonderful, in themselves, and for the way displays and illustrates her story, your thoughts and reflections. I really love how the piece is broken down into three parts, all using songs. Fairy tales were created to help instill ideas, morals, ways of doing things/dealing with things and your trifecta here do a great job in emulating the reason for fairy tale existence. Again, great job, especially because the topic is so heavy. Thanks
Thank you kindly for your empathy, Fred. As I was saying above to Charles the poetry, which was written at different times, helps me come to the relationship with less baggage. I don’t yet know if I’ll be able to visit her (and she’s being transferred soon) but I will write to her and try to be there for her in any way I can. Reminding myself that God loves her and cares for her helps me face my limitations in offering assistance. Reaching out to the community, coordinating with others who help care for her, and praying helps too.
Set against the colors of your background, this pouring out from your heart made me feel as though I was in the depths of this with you and her…
I will pray along side you for her growth and strength and health as well as yours…
thank you for being there Anna… you are a gift.
Thank you Patricia, I think we are all in the depths of life with one another in general. We feel deeply the suffering of others and grow individually by investing in the health of all members of our community. Your connection is deeply appreciated.
if this is a real friend you had to deal with, then i feel sooooo sorry for you.
this would go with Victoria’s prompt: addiction or in other words, i think you should link it on that also!! 🙂
once upon a polar bear
Yes, she’s real. I’ll be by to read your poem today :).
Medieval alchemists had a sort of assistant in their work, a soror (usually female), who physically reflected and aided the work, which was a chymical wedding of chemistry and psychology. I think the mentoring is great and also provides a mirror to the speaker of alternate mythologies that one must choose between, the wet aria or the drowning lament. I had to get thorough lost in the woods and the weeds of the bottled night before getting on my knees in despair and crying for help, which came largely through poetry and the myths. (That and AA.) Sometimes all one can do for those children lost in their woods is lay the possibilities at their feet, in the hopes that one day they will pick them up and start putting them to great use. And then go lay the same book of wonders at the feet of another lost child … Great work, Anna. — Brendan
Yes, a book of wonders, full of healing/transformative tools, as an offering of peace and compassion. Thank you for the reminder that she may one day discern the value of that book and find her way. On that day I will sing of joy.
Strange, my post appears to have gone walkabout, It was all about narrative psychology, and use of storytelling in counselling as well as the various Jungian uses – all very proper and grown up response to a reading 😦
I’m sorry you experienced technical difficulties; I’m sure it was an excellent comment. Thank you for reading and I’ll be by to read your poem soon.