“Poetry is all about symbol and metaphor. Because you have that kind of language, it allows you to be delicate, no matter what the subject matter is. No matter how dark it can be delicate, you can lift it out of that dark space in a way that’s beautiful and gentle.” ~ Nikki Grimes
Dear friends of Refuge,
You don’t have to write poetry to live a poetic life.
A poetic life is one that allows for moments of delicacy, not just careful handling of your own experience of hard times, but a “beautiful and gentle” lifting of others out of darkness.
So, hear this Weekly Pour as written to a mass of poets, because that’s who you are!
The following poem reflects a certain perspective I pondered after a private conversation I had recently with Frey Teklu, my friend and the dearly-loved manager/leader of our Clarkston shop:
An Outsider Life
My limited perspective
makes little room
for the beautiful
or the miraculous
when my life is bottled up
and my vision distorted
by the curved glass
of my own reflection,
when I live inside
a funhouse mirror
that convinces me
the world looks
just like me.
Such is an insider life:
Boring and small.
I choose to
unstopper my life,
to curl myself
like a genie’s smoke
outside,
where my neighbors,
whose faces,
whose lilting voices,
whose savory smells
and brilliant turns of phrase
are as unlike mine
as is humanly possible.
(Yet because we
are human, the similarities
outweigh the differences.)
Outside, where there is enough
air in the atmosphere
for all,
and the blue sky
widens my eyes
and, please God,
my heart,
making room for
everyone.
Where, though same feels safe,
different is better
and worth whatever
risk same threatens
to celebrate.
Let’s write some poetry with our welcome,
Kitti
