Cottonwood dangles her hundreds of hearts out in the wind. They skim the roaring of snow melt stream, flashing darkness, pulsing light. I am trying to do the same, as if my heart is slick and green, as if there weren’t only the one. The Prompt
Wow this tiny poem packs such a gorgeous punch! I love the play on words with “cast” - makes me think both of worm castings but also of a cast over a broken heart, as if it’s a bone. So beautiful!
Worm castings are fascinating, and I love that you've woven this question into your haiku ode (a little genre-bender there) to the worm. "All creatures great and small..."
I really feel this - that disconnect is so palpable...like cognitive dissonance, but with the heart...coronary dissonance? That doesn't sound quite right, but the disconnect between heartache/break and being "fine" physiologically speaking.
Yes! I tried to layer the meaning with my heart aches and also my POTS, both of which cause this similar dissonance. It's such a weird thing, being "fine"
This is beautiful, A. What a creative way to contrast the heart as an organ, an essential piece of our anatomy, with the emotional heart, that sometimes hurts so much from all the wounds it sustains. As a non doctor, it seems your heart looks beautiful from here.
Such a sweet poem, small but mighty with delicious imagery. I love the photo and video of the magnificent cottonwood, too (and Clear Creek reminds me of Millie!). Here is what the prompt squeezed out of me:
“I guess we’ll work together” - I love the simplicity and profundity of this. This is such a thought provoking poem, Karri. I spent such a big part of my life thinking my head was supposed to rule my heart and obsessing over concepts like “self mastery.” I’ve largely flipped that on its head (heart?) in recent years and am living mostly from the heart, but of course we are never just the one or the other, are we?
This is such a thoughtful and searing poem, Karri. These lines are so clear and piercing: “ so I guess we’ll work together, head and heart and soul”. The poem is full of incisive and insightful lines. Thank you for sharing!
I love this exploration of how to operate your navigational equipment, Karri. And I'm so glad you're not deferring to C.S. Lewis's *thinking*, but to balance. I can relate. For me, my entire body's wisdom is also part of the balancing act...I believe it tells the truth, unlike my often-wily head.
So much beautiful ache here, Larry. I felt my own heart acknowledge the truth of "the language of the heart/is our native tongue" and "a world where love resides/in all the broken places." <3
Thank you Keith. You read and reflect with such an incisive and insightful eye and mind. As Nanci Griffith writes and sings “may our open hearts find rest.”
I can see that layering, both with the reference to the salt grain(s) and being in an appointment with a cardiovascular surgeon (?). I can relate to appearing "fine" or being assessed as "fine" and feeling really UNfine...this has been the case for me with various behavioral health diagnoses over many years. I love how cleverly your poem captures the dissonance.
Ok, I have another to add that I wrote today. It isn't exactly on theme but it is relevant to the concept I raised in the poem of whether my head (brain) or my heart (emotions) drive me to behave, live, talk, act the way I do. And don't get me wrong, I'm in no way suggesting one should not share emotions, be honest with their feelings. I have just gotten into this really negative mindset lately and have found that this kind of helps to "jump start" me. (the 1992 is just a reference to a bad time period. It really started in 1993, but that didn't rhyme!)
I can relate to the relief of redirecting my own "stinkin' thinkin'" ...and also experience of it not working out some days, when certain parts of self refuse to bypass (and demand to be heard/seen in their big emotions).
Broken, tortured worm
Purple, black, green, sweet & brave
Why's your cast fist shaped?
Wow this tiny poem packs such a gorgeous punch! I love the play on words with “cast” - makes me think both of worm castings but also of a cast over a broken heart, as if it’s a bone. So beautiful!
Worm castings are fascinating, and I love that you've woven this question into your haiku ode (a little genre-bender there) to the worm. "All creatures great and small..."
I am sitting
before a man
who has
held hearts
in his hands,
as he assures me
once again
that, functionally,
mine is fine;
.
so why
does it ache
so often?
so much more,
it seems,
than others
of its kind?
.
I will try to take it
with a grain of salt -
or, rather, several -
to find a way to absorb
what feels like a lie:
.
I am fine;
my heart just
hurts sometimes.
Being “fine” can sure feel lousy! This poem strikes such a chord for me.
So hard to hear that “everything’s okay “ when for you, it is not. ❤️
I really feel this - that disconnect is so palpable...like cognitive dissonance, but with the heart...coronary dissonance? That doesn't sound quite right, but the disconnect between heartache/break and being "fine" physiologically speaking.
Yes! I tried to layer the meaning with my heart aches and also my POTS, both of which cause this similar dissonance. It's such a weird thing, being "fine"
..salt....
(an ironic reference to my POTS)
This is beautiful, A. What a creative way to contrast the heart as an organ, an essential piece of our anatomy, with the emotional heart, that sometimes hurts so much from all the wounds it sustains. As a non doctor, it seems your heart looks beautiful from here.
Such a sweet poem, small but mighty with delicious imagery. I love the photo and video of the magnificent cottonwood, too (and Clear Creek reminds me of Millie!). Here is what the prompt squeezed out of me:
*
Sometimes there are seasons
of grief so complete
that the primary purpose
of the heart may be
to hold the ache
like a retaining wall,
preventing the landslide
from swallowing us whole.
Moreover,
that ache
may be the only way
we recognize
having survived the landslide
one more day.
This is beautiful and so powerful in its simplicity. I love the meaning you give to that ache.
Thanks, friend...here's to all the <3 has to offer and teach.
Oh, the heart holding the ache as a retaining wall !! Yes!
Thanks, A. :))
This is very lovely, Keith. The amazing paradox of the heart.❤️ which you capture so well in your eloquent writing. Loads of good heart juju to you.
Thanks, Larry - and right back at you with good heart juju <3
Beautiful and so very true. The ache let’s us know we are still around.
Thanks, Karri. Yes...that ache is sometimes the only thing that cuts through the numbness.
I share that amazement, Billy. The human heart's resilience and capacity to stretch in every possible way is miraculous.
Is my head ruled by my heart?
Or is my heart ruled by my head?
And what about my spirit or my soul?
.
My heart beats on sheer emotions
And I react more than I act.
.
My head thrives on planning
And worst case scenarios.
.
My heart breaks with so much sadness
For what I can’t control.
.
My head thinks that surely
I can fix it all.
.
If I defer to C.S. Lewis* my heart needs to step back
Let my head take the reins a little more.
.
But when you have a head like mine, it can’t always be trusted
To see things clearly as they truly are.
.
So I guess we’ll work together
Head and heart and soul,
.
To navigate this life
Every day.
.
Often starting over
And finding middle ground.
.
Amongst the logic and emotions
The joy and the pain.
“The heart never takes the place of the head; but it can, and should, obey it.” – C.S. Lewis
“I guess we’ll work together” - I love the simplicity and profundity of this. This is such a thought provoking poem, Karri. I spent such a big part of my life thinking my head was supposed to rule my heart and obsessing over concepts like “self mastery.” I’ve largely flipped that on its head (heart?) in recent years and am living mostly from the heart, but of course we are never just the one or the other, are we?
"So I guess we'll work together" 🧡
This is such a thoughtful and searing poem, Karri. These lines are so clear and piercing: “ so I guess we’ll work together, head and heart and soul”. The poem is full of incisive and insightful lines. Thank you for sharing!
I love this exploration of how to operate your navigational equipment, Karri. And I'm so glad you're not deferring to C.S. Lewis's *thinking*, but to balance. I can relate. For me, my entire body's wisdom is also part of the balancing act...I believe it tells the truth, unlike my often-wily head.
Thank you Lisa, and dear poet friends, for your kind and open hearts.
Heart-Land
^
Winds blows quietly across the sand,
shifting shoreline constantly moving,
evolving coastline that holds my heart.
Across a terrain of fractured and fragmented hearts
the debris of a world flipped upside down.
Within a life’s landscape of broken hearts,
lie secrets scattered like jewels upon the sea;
Things seen and unseen,
words spoken and unspoken,
lies and truth blended into tomorrow’s dreams,
transformation caught between past, present and future
in the heart songs that will never be sung,
the wounds that may never heal,
the stories never fully told.
Can you hear this fragile heart beating?
Irregular rhythms, off beat cadence,
part organ, part mystical dance,
that I’ll never fully understand.
The language of the heart
is our native tongue
even in those moments
when the words won’t find their way.
A prayer rises on the dawn mist:
May our open hearts find peace
in a world where love resides
in all the broken places.
“Part organ, part mystical dance” - I love this, Larry! Thank you for sharing your beautiful heart with us.
Thank you Lisa, for your kind and open heart!
So much beautiful ache here, Larry. I felt my own heart acknowledge the truth of "the language of the heart/is our native tongue" and "a world where love resides/in all the broken places." <3
Thank you Keith. You read and reflect with such an incisive and insightful eye and mind. As Nanci Griffith writes and sings “may our open hearts find rest.”
Hauntingly lovely.
"Where love resides in all the broken places" yes!
I can see that layering, both with the reference to the salt grain(s) and being in an appointment with a cardiovascular surgeon (?). I can relate to appearing "fine" or being assessed as "fine" and feeling really UNfine...this has been the case for me with various behavioral health diagnoses over many years. I love how cleverly your poem captures the dissonance.
Yes! I decided to name the poem "cardiology."
Love it <3
I was immediately drawn to your title because we are seeing cottonwoods while in New Mexico! I will ponder the prompt as we are out and about today.
Oh how lovely! Enjoy your trip!
Lisa, you amaze me every single time with the depth, breadth and insight of your poems and your prompts. I am so grateful for you.
I’m largely motivated by the selfish desire to get you all to share your own poems with me, so that I can enjoy feeling amazed, too!
It is mutual amazement for sure! And, I suspect that selfish is not a word that applies to you!
I'm sure by now you know one of the ways to my heart is to write about your own. I love this so much, Lisa.
The same is true for me - which might be why I’m so enamored by your poems!
Yes, I think it's very mutual 🧡
Ok, I have another to add that I wrote today. It isn't exactly on theme but it is relevant to the concept I raised in the poem of whether my head (brain) or my heart (emotions) drive me to behave, live, talk, act the way I do. And don't get me wrong, I'm in no way suggesting one should not share emotions, be honest with their feelings. I have just gotten into this really negative mindset lately and have found that this kind of helps to "jump start" me. (the 1992 is just a reference to a bad time period. It really started in 1993, but that didn't rhyme!)
They say fake it til you make it
As if it's something new.
But I've started every day that way
Since 1992.
.
And it may seem disingenuous
To not act the way I feel.
But if I can get on with my day
I start to feel more real.
.
My closest friends and family
Know my many moods.
They also know how I can get
When my emotions rule.
.
They love me without condition
Yet I'm sure it's a relief
When they see me and I'm smiling,
Even if it's just skin deep.
.
But the one who stands to gain the most
From this practice is me.
I fine with tricking my mind to think things
Aren't quite as they seem.
.
Sometimes it doesn't work that well
And I come undone.
Default to negativity
And I'm back to square one.
.
That calls for a re-centering
A reset, a restart.
Just smile and wave boys, it'll be fine.
Even if it's not.
I can relate to the relief of redirecting my own "stinkin' thinkin'" ...and also experience of it not working out some days, when certain parts of self refuse to bypass (and demand to be heard/seen in their big emotions).
I love this follow-up, Karri. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much, Billy!
Beautiful song, beautiful voice!
Beautiful, Billy. Tender hearts *are* hard to find (except here at 100 poems, of course ; ))