In Case You Ever Need It, It is Here (poem)

"Take this as yours
Rip this from the book
of make a copy
fold it in half
and half again
and put it in your wallet
or between the mattress and the box spring
or taped under your desk
so it is there
if.

Know this: what happened
to your body
to your head
to your heart
is not your fault.
It is not something you caused
or deserved.

It is like blaming yourself
for someone hitting your hand
with a hammer.
(If that person is you,
put the hammer down.
Let it be an accident.
Let it be the end.)

The body, heart, brain knows
how to heal. It knows how to knit
back together. How to suture
and secure. Let it do what it does.
Your body is yours.Your body
will always be yours.

You are not what happened.
Your whole life
is not just this. You do not speak
a language made of this, this is
not your name. 

Your name is your own.

Let your name be
The name of someone who
can do the unthinkable:
Stands up and keeps moving.
You are standing. You are taking
a shower and eating breakfast.
You are going to classes
or going to work. You are doing
impossibly hard things. Keep going
and keep going and there
is summer. Laugh even if it is
with rage. Open your mouth
and your fists. Tell the truth.
Tell a friend. Listen to someone
else's heart. it is beating
a miracle. You are
Both here.

When scars are new,
They shine. Be all the glitter
You need."

--Daphne Gottlieb--

process

"On the Weirdness of
The Creative Impulse:

Earth, Fire, Water
If you would create
from original self...

See that rock over there?
Be impatient with the rock...
and nothing happens.

Say, 'Nice rock,
nice rock,'
and nothing happens.

Stare at rock
without end.
Nothing happens.

Pick up rock--
take it over there.
Stare at it.
Pick rock back up
and move it back
where it began.
Nothing
comes of it.

But/and...
Be gently
angry with the rock,
bust it to pieces
and add peaceful
water
to make clay--

Then fashion
the clay
into a vessel
that will hold
the peace of water
from what was
once
wroth by anger.

This is one
of the most
important lessons
of creating...
Impatience
and all the rest
too often
go nowhere.

A gentled
anger often has
true potential
if broken down,
and transformed
in
and to
peace.

I know you know
from soul outward
what this means.

The soul
ever knows
how earth,
fire,
and water
need
one another."

Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes

[nightmares] until then

Until
by Indu Iyer

"Women live in the silences between men
in between the daggers of words
the shards of hate
the pummels of fists.
We live in the spaces
carved out between
abuse
in between the cat calls
the gropings
the unwanted penetration.
Between discomfort and
pure horror
we fight to stay alive.
as we tiptoe to not wake
him in the morning
as we hold secret bank accounts,
as we call fellow women for help
only once he has gone to work.
We fight as we wear
running shoes instead of sandals
carry keys in our hand
when we walk at night
give fake numbers
to men in bars
not wanting to unpin a grenade.
This fighting
is not valiant and rewarding.
it is degrading business
it turns women into mice
scurrying from corner to corner
with our feet peddling
as fast as they can
trying to locate a crumb
or a nibble of cheese
amid a world of cats.
Let me be clear – Women are not mice.
Women will not be made into pestilence
by those men who choose to hate us.
We will not live in little holes
between the floor boards
we will not be prisoners
in our own homes, our streets, our cities.
We will not live in the spaces between
our abusers and attackers.
We will fight.
We will cauterize our wounds
with our rage
We will rise like
walls of an inferno
ferocious
relentless
undeniable
each day
every day
Until every woman who says “I was raped” is believed.
Until prostitution is no longer an option.
Until pornography is a relic of the past.
Until women do not fear
our own fathers or brothers
our friends, teachers, lovers
because they might believe
they own our bodies
our minds
our words
our lives.
Until every living person knows
without question
that women do not exist merely
to please men
to serve men
to fuck men,
But that women are survivors
that women are warriors
that women are above all
human.
Until love without tyranny
is not a dream
but the only love
ever known to woman
at all."

(From the Montreal Massacre Memorial on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women)