Finally through the fog, the poetry rises again --
Today as I left the grocery store parking lot I thought, “Where has my poetry gone?”
I had just met my friend, LisaAnn, in line and she had asked what I was up to right now. She has always been a “poetry friend” first and foremost. I see her and remember poetry performance.
I have gone through the longest spell of my life without doing any poetry performance and it is one of my very favorite activities. It is strangely beyond the word strange. I haven’t analyzed it primarily because I suppose I haven't wanted to think about it. I have noticed it but not enough to take action to change it.
I remember one of the first forty-two day programs I started more than ten years ago there was a phrase I used that became a catch phrase.
Three simple words: Start and continue.
Those are the words that flash into my head when I ask where my poetry has gone, knowing full well my poetry is always here, it is I who float away.
“You just have to put your pencil to paper” the thought reminded me as I purposefully drove to my home office, wanting to be sure I made it in time for my daily community writing sprint.
Fingers to the keyboard, music floating toward my center.
I write. My dear friend arrives once I consciously issue the invitation:
Miracle reflection
Thin red line
shouting new life
not as most
would claim it
“its a miracle”
I said, looking
at the stitches,
the residual blood,
the tiny dots
where threads
recently lived
my face
is more
me than
it has been
in more
than a year
No matter
what others
declare, it
is I who
felt battered
by the pulchritudinous
scar, slick so
makeup didn’t
stick like
many suggested
I try
So recent
two children
ran from
my sight
today - afraid
by my old new
face
the one
I refuse
to be
ashamed
to show
to use
to touch
to feel against
the chilly
winds of
this late
November
miracle
= = =
I recently had scar revision surgery to mend my melanoma scar. It took a long time and quite a bit of courage to go back in and get it done. I am so grateful I did. Less than one week after surgery, my doctor took out my sutures and said, "Ok, look in the mirror over there..."
I did.
The words, "Its a miracle!" flew from my mouth without thought. I've experienced many miracles recently. May miracles continue. for each and all of us.
=====
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
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