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Kathryn's avatar

Recent poem I enjoyed by Safia Elhillo

border/softer

in the new year or when I grow up or

if I live through the night I want to be

ungovernable. No longer a citizen

to any of the names assigned my body

& then how boundless could I make my life

which for all its smallness still exhausts me

balancing act of all my margins all my conjugations

of cannot. If I live through the night I will bleed

into all my edges until I am no longer a stroke

of some careless man's pen. After

a particularly liquid lunch Churchill was said

to have created [ ] with a stroke of his [ ]

& isn't a map only a joke we all agreed into a fact

& where can I touch the equator & how will I know

I am touching it & where is the end of my country

the beginning of the next how will I know I've crossed over

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Tiffany Writes's avatar

So mine is Mary Oliver’s Invitation (due to some research I have been doing) I like her pieces & this one particularly resonated as I slow down and reconsider my purpose in life.

Oh do you have time

to linger

for just a little while

out of your busy

and very important day

for the goldfinches

that have gathered

in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,

to see who can sing

the highest note,

or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,

or the most tender?

Their strong, blunt beaks

drink the air

as they strive

melodiously

not for your sake

and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning

but for sheer delight and gratitude –

believe us, they say,

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you,

do not walk by

without pausing

to attend to this

rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

It could mean everything.

It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:

You must change your life.

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