Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Letter to the Others in the Dark
I am writing not to send you light,
but to let you know you are not alone
in the darkness. I am here, too,
scribbling with no sight, no certainty
Robert Cording: Broken
Now, my brother’s fifty-year marriage
broken off as if their past was
an imposter that had been discovered.
And my best friend’s wife can’t find
the name for husband,
though he sits next to her.
Alexis Rhone Fancher: Hermanas
You’re the same, you two, J, my lover, said. Of course you feel an affinity. I stared at the Frida Kahlo self-portrait in his hands. Frida’s soulful sweetness stared back. You … Continue reading
Sandy Solomon: Making Soup
Who would have guessed before this year
how cheerful this simple chore would feel
now that the sick room’s silence starts
beyond the swinging kitchen door.
Laurence Musgrove: Healing
Have you ever thought
that you weren’t healing
as fast as you thought
you should
Pablo Otavalo: If you stood any closer you’d be underground
Help me dress these wounds with words
Toi Derricotte: My dad & sardines
i’ve made an altar called
The Altar for Healing the Father & Child
James Crews: Choosing the Light
Relentless
as the urge that also blooms in us—
to find the things that bring us alive,
and open ourselves fully to them, never
giving up
Video: Between Earth & Sky
Renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni studies “what grows back” after a disturbance in the rainforest canopy. In 2015, her rope snapped on a research climb, and she fell fifty feet from a tree and nearly died. After making a miraculous recovery, Nalini begins to explore a new research subject – herself.
Emily Suzanne Carlson: Mother of Pearl
oysters don’t ignore
the “irritant,” they tend to it,
letting it shimmer
Al Maginnes: The Body’s Cartographer
I’ve been lucky enough to steer clear of pain that squats
like the friend you no longer like but can’t evict
from your couch because he’s out of work, but able
to be drunk every day you walk in the door.
Linda Parsons: Two Poems
I’m not a healer, though maybe
I am—my ordinary hands laid on the scathing past
to cool its sear, my palms a bowl cupping
the last drop of day in blind descent.
Elizabeth Mercurio: Three Poems
Years have passed
since I last tried to take my life.
Travis Lupick: Gabor Maté And The Myth of Normal
Celebrated physician Gabor Maté discusses how our toxic culture is making us ill.
