"call it our craziness / our wildness"
Benediction
May you put your bare feet directly on the Earth today.
May you know your truth and say it lightly.
roots
by Lucille Clifton
call it our craziness even,
call it anything.
it is the life thing in us
that will not let us die.
even in death’s hand
we fold the fingers up
and call them greens
and grow on them,
we hum them and make music.
call it our wildness then,
we are lost from the field
of flowers, we become
a field of flowers.
call it our craziness
our wildness
call it our roots,
it is the light in us
it is the light of us
it is the light, call it
whatever you have to,
call it anything.
from Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 by Lucille Clifton, 1987
“Unconventional Beauty” by Vasyl Korchovy (Ukrainian, b. 1962), marbled limestone
Creative Invitations
1
Write a love letter to an aspect or part of yourself that you struggle with, hide or disown. How does that aspect or part try to help you out (however misguided it may be?) Award it a prize.
2
Sketch yourself naked. Look in the mirror if you like, or do it from memory. Not “nude” with its genre idealizations and drive to be sexy, but simply naked—a unique body with a volume in space, a complex and interesting shape.
Have a beautiful day and thanks for visiting the open door.
XO,
Abriel