that's mrs. mediocrity to you

The word I sort-of picked for this year was open. And it’s a word that’s served me well, a quiet, pleasant reminder to keep growing, always.

And lately I’ve been thinking about words (okay, I admit, I am always thinking about words) as labels. We have good ones and bad ones, but that varies depending on who it is that’s applying them. We can call ourselves old or fat or lazy or any number of things, but when someone else does it, we are hurt, or offended, or outraged. We also test this theory by calling ourselves positive things, goddess and badass and guru and warrior, things that pump us up and make us feel good (or better) about who we are.

But they’re all labels. Definitions. Closed books that allow the rest of the world to see nothing but the cover, even if it is one we drew ourselves.

I want to see what’s on the inside. We’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, but we do. I want to crack the spine and hold the pages open. I want to read every sentence.

I recently acquired a new label: Grandma. (One I love and am happy to claim, by the way). But when I ran into acquaintance and told her the news, she said something about how we were going to have to think of a better word to call it. And then I wondered why. Because I am a grandma. And a woman, and a wife and a mother and a runner and a gardener and a writer and a photographer and a poet and a housekeeper and a business owner and a laundress and an accountant and a cat box cleaner-outer. Labels.

I am an amalgam of labels.

We try to peel off the ones we don’t like, and pretty up the ones we do, adding scrolls and graphics and big bold letters. We wear those proudly, and the rest we try to hide, under clothing and posture and presentation.

But here’s what I say: Release them all. Refuse to let them stick, refuse to be defined.

Be a new word every minute. An ordinary word, an ordinary minute, a real, alive, breathing, changing, blossoming word.

Keep them guessing. Keep yourself guessing. Hold your arms wide open, and let the petals fall where they may.

Set your story free on the wind.

Watch where it goes.

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backlit by storm
and the magic of timing

there is never a moment of silence
something somewhere
is always rumbling

and i learn to take peace
in the pauses

there is never a pillow
of sweet dreams
everafter

but rather

this reality
of storm and sunshine

creeping in
on stealthy paws

and we sit
together

stare each other
down

from the comfortable
distance

between us

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uncurl, unfurl
into a blooming dance twirl

lay soft or stare hard
but do not be afraid
to show the center of your
self
to the mirror help maid

sit in lachrymose silence
til the end of the sky
fills yours scent cloaked ears

and then dance
to the cloud colored music
you hear

the only absolute
is open

and your interpretation
is the petal spread of living
on a vine scored with rows
of hidden heart thorn

climb the ladder with care
and then jump
into being

scatter petals
shout perfume
nod your head at the coy
wary moon

uncurl, unfurl
into a blooming dance

twirl

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and it’s the magic of twilight that draws me outside, down the hill to a swamp filled with peepers. some nights the sound roars through the darkness, and on those nights, it’s not that i can’t sleep, it’s just that i don’t want to. my primal memory wants to lie outside and count the starts into numbers too large to carry. my feet refuse to forget the sensation of walking. nothing is clear in the darkness, but everything shines, and until you’ve let the moon find your shadow, you’ve never once stood in real light. there are secrets out here, everywhere. the trees are always whispering. i want to walk into the forest and do nothing but listen. that’s where all the answers are, but we’ve forgotten how to hear them. lightning reminds us, but only for a moment. and thunder makes us forget yet again. i want to wash my hair in the rain and leaves my toes caked with mud. i want to run through the color of midnight.

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“You can’t ‘just’ be a poet—which when rent is due is absolutely true—therefore we get pretend titles like Ambassador and Legislator and Seer. The upside is that we are free (or, downside, forced) to find or invent roles for ourselves (and our poems) that engage differently with the material demands of our culture.”~Mark Bibbins

I came across this quote yesterday, after a conversation the evening before with my husband about the paths we take and why we take them, and whether or not we regret them, or at the very least, wish we’d done things differently.

This is something I’ve thought about a lot recently, as I find myself aging, as I lose friends and loved ones, as I traverse the territory of middle-age that stands between now and crone. And I find myself, quite often, wishing I had done just that. Except then I realize that I did do everything differently, without thought, without choice even, because my path was never the one paved with asphalt and fancy construction, my path was always just a break in the trees somewhere in the woods, and I was always the barefoot girl staring wide-eyed at the moon.

So, okay, no regrets, but there are still things that haunt me. And the older I get, the more security becomes one of them, the more struggling looks less romantic and simply hard. The more I wonder if I should have put some high heels on all those years ago and walked down a different road, wearing a suit that might confine, but would also protect. I was a straight-A student my whole life. I could have done anything. (At least that’s what the little voice whispers.)

But the voice that always answers back, the one that’s stronger and sing-song and slightly rose-colored, tells a different story. That I could only ever have done exactly what I did. I could only ever be who I am. And that is my solace.

Will it be enough to see me through?

Only time will tell, and besides, the sun is shining down on these roses about to bloom and a few years back, this whole bush was crushed to the ground. I see no regret in these buds that turn themselves boldly towards the sun, and the thorns and the scars are all hidden just now, in the darkest shadows of growth.

I’ll sit here and watch them open and listen to the birds and inhale all the yesterdays that brought me to this moment.

And all I’ll breathe out is today.

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It feels like summer already, high heat, lazy naps (for him, at least), flip flops and outdoor fires, all beneath the only ceiling that doesn’t close me in.

Gypsy days and windows-open nights.

The perfect lullabye of peepers and crickets.

Sun on my skin.

Last night I sat outside until midnight. It was 88° when I walked inside.

This morning, everything is green.

Game on.

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but you can’t stand still with a photo
in one hand
holding claim to borrowed memory
even a dead crow
dreams of color
sometimes
and everything buried will
eventually
rise
to the catacomb
of temporary
surface

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 29
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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and even a star can get pulled
out of shape by the weight of living
and eventually
everything rusts
(except plastic) and you
can bury your heart
in the landfill of everything
but you will still
hear it beating
in corners

boxing

you in
and you’ll just keep thinking
you win
you win
you win

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 28
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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you say age cannot wither her, sir

but i say what a piece of work is man all filled up

with woe is me and heart on your sleeve and

a rose by any other name when what you mean is

love is blind or bag and baggage but i carry you

to the corner of frailty, thy name is woman all

green eyed monster and fight fire with fire

(really, i have green eyes)

and lay you down under the greenwood tree knowing

for certain that all the world’s a stage

and the milk of human kindness will save you when

the game is up and thereby hangs a tale

of more fool you though

this is the short and the long of it

and the course of true love never did run smooth

but all’s well that ends well and we both know

there’s method in my madness

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Et tu, Brute i say, Et tu?*

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Today I took Poem A Day’s challenge one step further and filled a poem with
Shakespeare phrases, in addition to using words he coined in the title.
All phrases in italics are Will’s.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 26
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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what i hold in my palm is not forgiveness, exactly
but my own cracked version of all the ways
i’ve learned to spell

the quest for grace
the call for compassion
the human con(dition)

absolution is not mine to give nor
clemency mine to offer

i can only keep my hand open
mark these trails as map
forgotten

i no longer need
to know the route
taken

for i stand naked in the rain
of evolution
running rivulets of truth
across a river
laced with anarchy
and stone

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 23
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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