Tuesday, April 30, 2024

self-help

i read a poem or a book

and give them away

i gather every leftover tears & misses

and stir them to my green tea

i put down the mirror 

and go for a walk in the park

or go to the unbeaten path, somewhere

strange & new to marvel the trees

i palm a fallen leaf or stone, 

and get lost in the wonder of its veins,

palettes, ridges & wrinkles


i bake my mother's bread 

and travel back in time

i try out my daughter's salad from IG

and heard the birdsongs outside the kitchen

i bury my nose among the wildflowers

and found my valleys & hills

i inhale the beat of your verses

and discover my music

i grab every chance to unfold & re-

fold and fold into my-

self, a butterfly every season



Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Poetics, How About a Selfie, hosted by Punam.  Thanks for your visits and comments.

16 comments:

  1. Love all the examples of self-help to have... those wildflowers are coming now and I really want to see more.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That’s my kind of self-help, Grace, poems, books, walks, nature, especially wild flowers. These lines spoke to me:
    ‘i gather every leftover tears & misses
    and stir them to my green tea’
    and
    ‘i palm a fallen leaf or stone,
    and get lost in the wonder of its veins,
    palettes, ridges & wrinkles’.
    I've sewn wildflowers in various parts of our garden, and cant wait for them to blossom.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love it, Grace. Each word deeply resonates. The closing lines are especially beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There's so much more to self than that mask called me. Thanks for this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. kathy at writingpresence.comApril 30, 2024 at 3:55 PM

    "to unfold & re-

    fold and fold into my-

    self, a butterfly every season"

    I do love what you have shared in this poem, and how you finish up in the origami of butterflying.
    Blessings, Grace!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love that closing line! How could I not have thought of the butterfly metaphor? Anyway, you did and it's great. The rest of your poem is really nicely-written too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I, too, love that butterfly close. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  8. This lovely and inspiring

    Much♡love

    ReplyDelete
  9. Eric here. We are a sort of origami are we not? All that folding. I saw hidden here the palm leaf. This is excellent Grace. Some parts seemed to be wrong but I’m sure that was just in my reading

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a beautiful hymn to life and the way you life yours. (Suzanne - Wordpress blog - Wayfaring)

    ReplyDelete
  11. A beautiful recipe for self-care. <3

    ReplyDelete
  12. Beautifully written Grace. I love the butterfly metaphor.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Grace, this is delightful. I especially love the lines “i palm a fallen leaf or stone,
    and get lost in the wonder of its veins,
    palettes, ridges & wrinkles”

    “i bake my mother's bread
    and travel back in time”

    and “i grab every chance to unfold & re-
    fold and fold into my-
    self, a butterfly every season”

    ReplyDelete
  14. That self-help can contain such beauty in found and remembered treasures is something that we need to taught and retaught, even as we "unfold & re-/fold and fold into my-/self, a butterfly every season." Swept away by your lines, Grace.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am going to think of your poem as "Traveling With Kim" because I love every place 'we' journeyed. Brava!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. So many points of resonance here for me, and so many wonderful lines - I stir them to my green tea

    ReplyDelete

I try my best to reciprocate comments and visits.
I allow anonymous comments if you have difficulty posting them. Thank you & have a good day!!!