Vox Populi
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Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: The One Great Story
There are so many ways to hold and be held.
—James Crews, “The World Loves You Back”
Assume belonging.
—Augusta Kantra
.
There are so many ways to hold and be held.
Like the way the white and black cat holds my lap
even as I hold her small weight.
Like the way a woman holds a canyon in her heart—
its red rock cliffs and snow-thick spruce—
even as the canyon holds her.
And when I hold silence and offer it my whole attention,
I feel how silence holds me,
cradles me with such profound nothing
it becomes everything.
What if we assume we belong?
Then we might find we are held
by strands of birdsong, by the even beat
of eagle’s wings, by the blue moonlight
that reflects off the snow.
I spent so much time worrying
about how to fit in, changing
how I dressed, how I spoke, what I did.
I somehow didn’t learn until recently
real belonging asks nothing of me
except I offer myself exactly as I am.
I become more myself when I trust I am held
as much by shadow as by light,
held by the one shared breath, by the one
infinite song, held by soil, held by sky,
held even by the human longing to be held,
held by the one great story
from which our lives cannot be unwritten.
Copyright 2025 Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a teacher, poet and story teller whose many books include The Unfolding. She lives with her husband and daughter in Placerville, Colorado, on the banks of the wild and undammed San Miguel River.
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“I become more myself when I trust I am held
as much by shadow as by light”
Another exquisite poem, Rosemerry!
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Yet another of Rosemerry’s stunning poems to carry in my heart. ‘To offer myself exactly as I am’ and be held ‘as much by shadow as by light’ – this is my life’s work. So grateful to you Rosemerry for putting this into poetry and to you Michael for sharing it with us. xoxo
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Well-said, Jan. I feel much the same way about Rosemerry’s work.
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Thank you for all your poems. There are so many that have helped me process my grief. I am blessed in having been introduced to your work.
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A dear poem that holds so much. ✨🫶
Belonging is something so many of us spend our lives trying to find. Hjemve is a danish word that means home-grief, home-anguish, home-sickness where we long for what we miss but often for ‘places’ we’ve not even had or experienced. It’s a primary reason I’ve often yearned, since a child, to be another species, usually a raptor, on this planet.
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Thanks, Renee. I’ve often dreamed of being a hawk. Perhaps it is my spirit animal.
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For many years I have lived in nature and embraced its gentle, consoling force, and Rosemerry’s poem has opened a new and beautiful spiritual connection that I can hold intimately, and that can hold me the same. The power of poetry never ceases to amaze me.
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Thanks, Marc. Well-said.
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Thank you, Michael for all you do every sngle day! ❤️
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Thanks, Donna!
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Dear Rosemerry you are holding so many now. Thank you, love you.
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I just crawled out of bed (where I am hiding with a cold of cosmic proportions) and tried to read the most important emails I had missed. When I saw Rosemerry’s poem in the VOX POPULI list, I couldn’t resist. And, of course, it’s another thing of beauty. It IS indeed a gift. This poem gave me a lift and told me not to despair. I’ll be held. We’ll all be held.
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Yes, we are held!
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Oh wishing you ease in your body, even as you heal from the cosmic cold!!!
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Me, too. No covid ( at least out of date test says no covid) but rotten cold. Had to miss appt with surgeon today so everything will be put off.
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Thank you for this poem. This is a gift. This is a kindness. Here is Goodness. Here is Beauty. Here is Excellence. This is doing what that crow in the hemlock tree does – giving my heart a change of mood.
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Thanks, Owen.
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Thank you, Owen–and I love this image of the crow in the hemlock!
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OK, then let me reiterate my gratitude for this poetic work and that reading this poem was like climbing a ladder and balancing on each rung all the way up and while I climbed the crow in the hemlock tree came to visit from Robert Frost’s A Dust of Snow poem and as I climbed I couldn’t help remembering Goethe’s aphorism that’s like: A person finds in the world what they have in their heart. So Thank you, Rosemerry.
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ohmygosh, now I am smiling even wider. Thank you, Owen. ❤️
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Sometimes a poem cracks me open and I can finally cry.
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And then Rosemerry’s poem can console and hold you.
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❤️❤️
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Oh Barbara, me, too!!!
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❤️😥
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How I also love this poem — Rosemerry’s tone so ardently humble. And how I, as a reader, feel welcomed into this poem. I am certain that many, many of us can relate to:
“I spent so much time worrying
about how to fit in, changing
how I dressed, how I spoke, what I did.
I somehow didn’t learn until recently
real belonging asks nothing of me
except I offer myself exactly as I am. “
…yet I have been unable to express this so clearly! Thank you, dear Rosemerry — & Michael!
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I love those lines as well. Thank you, Laure-Anne.
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Amazing you, oh how hard it can be to say the simplest things. I love the way you do it, too ❤️
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What a stunning poem. I really love this one. Thank you.
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Thank you, Michelle!
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Thank you, Michelle!
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Such paradoxical wisdom expressed with tenderness . . . where did the top of my head go? Into my heart . . .
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Yes
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Thank you for this sweet laughter … where did the top of my head go, indeed!
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This poem belongs among the great ones of our time.
It’ll go above my kitchen counter to help greet each new day, joining Susan Kelly-DeWitt’s Psalm for Sunrise as anthems to incite joy, each holding us, helping us find a way.
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Thanks, Jim. I agree. It’s a beautiful poem.
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Thank you, Jim! I love that it will get to live in your kitchen, and in such fine company, too!
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