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Epilogue The clock does not know it will continue ticking but we will be gone; the garden will remain in velvety verdance and someone else will tend the plants and trim their wild ambitions; the birds will arrive at dawn waiting for the whistling woman […]
Trust It is hard to trust when fear leaves your mouth bone dry and your tongue lies locked, words departed and only the whispered prayers of childhood run through your mind rote learnt and repeated like mantras of familiarity Out of nowhere I stumble on […]
We
We who were born
to shift the fog
and clear away
old concepts
are finding each other
We the misfits
the lonely, the sad
the ones who ached
to find their belonging
are connectingWe the quiet observers
who desire something
beyond ourselves,
who want meaning
are stumbling across
each other and finding
solid groundWe the storytellers
are finding our voices
the chorus is rising
and the music is good.
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
Love When my bones are bleached and brittle from carrying my stories I hope to say I have loved When my skin has sagged, etched with experience and rivulets of tears, both sadness and laughter, have eroded my face I hope to say I have […]
Kindred In all the dust and chaos of the universe I stumbled on you Random particles who happened perchance, to be at the same spot at the same time in the vastness of where we could be In all the millions of probabilities and the […]
Fleeting
We promised to
meet, a pact made
long before we
were born
when we were light
in the throws
of planning an
earthbound journey
We promised to
meet, a pact made
with love
long before
the movement of tides
fated us to drift
in different directionsWe promised to
meet, a pact that
seemed bound to
be broken
and then
fleetingly we strolled
past each other
and smiledLifetimes relived
in a shy and gentle nod
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
Refuge It was long ago and memories now lie within a hush of petals fallen to the ground to nourish the earth hungry for beauty It was long ago and the music plays a scratchy memory of a needle on a record going round and […]
Manifest I was born your angel not in the sense of the good girl but in my role of fierce protector my tiny hands were made to drag you from your fears to save you from yourself and reignite your laughter when you were in […]
Saudade*
Sometimes the mists roll in
bringing thunderous sunshine
and the cicada filled memory
of kikuyu grass beneath
bare feet, cooling in the
summer heat
Sometimes the mists roll in
bringing Delft blue skies and the
clear recalling of the crimson
roses in the tiny garden
that held a grandmother’s effortsSometimes the mists roll in
carrying the voices you
thought you would never hear
again, and you recognise
the ones who are gone
but have never leftSometimes the mists drift in
and transport you back
to a self that lies layered
beneath years of passage
and you are back
to where it all began
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
*Saudade is a Portuguese word meaning “a bitter-sweet melancholic yearining for something beautiful that is now gone.”
Truth You came here without a path your role is to forge one for the ones trodden by others do not belong to you You came here with a heart your role is to break it for the only way to protect it is not […]
She She who puts herself together with perfection is hiding the secret of her own imperfections; she who steps forward despite feeling “not good enough”; she who smiles through gritted teeth and nods, violently disagreeing breaking inside, acquiescing because she knows she cannot shift the […]
Mercy
Give yourself twelve moons
start with the fullest point
collect all the things
you say about yourself,
the hardness, the brittle thoughts
the lack of kindness, the things
you would never say to a dearest friend,
but you say to yourself with ease
and learned repetition
these endless thoughts that have
have carved caverns in your mind
At the fullest point when
when the wolves howl
beside those creeks
and the moon hangs
above the fir trees
let those things go
to the milky silence
watch the moon wane
into the darkness
until your vitriol disappearsGive yourself twelve moons,
start with the point of disappearance
when the owl hoots its wisdom
collect all the things that are good,
everything that is gracious
about you, the generous you, the one
who loves tiny things that no one notices,
the one who lights a room
and watch that moon wax until
it reaches its fullness,
just as you too will bear the lightGrant yourself mercy
grant yourself peace
grant yourself twelve moons
of mercy, heal yourself
with forgiveness and release
and perhaps,
having lived these cycles
of intentional contemplation,
the whole world
might just be healed.
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
Lacuna* If you go into yourself and find a patch within that has no graffiti from others, from them, from people who love you and those who do not, if you go into yourself and find a field where nothing is built and no one […]
Blessings I create blessings in my head I send them to my hands and stroke them into your hair I tell you nothing of them for you will look at me with your wry smile and tell me I am way too optimistic This cosmic […]
Horizons
Horizons are a calling
a nudging to a place
that sometimes only
you can see far beyond
the misty plains,
way beyond the wooded hills
Horizons beckon and whisper,
“Come, just over the hill
just beyond where
you are at now.
There, look, is
the delightful thing
you have been searching for.”Sometimes it’s just a patch
of grass that is as green
as the patch you departed from,
but the perspective is different
the views go down to the ocean
and sweep the edges of your worldHorizons pull, they call, they cajole
they know the way.
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
Iktsuarpok* There are gentle Spring days when the air hushes the chilled land back from the cold and the hollow blue, sky hums to a tune that was written a million years ago And still in that peace we are pulled to the door, habit […]
Well There was a time when wells were the only source of water and villagers would congregate and share while drawing life-giving liquid from deep caverns Now we are unaccustomed to coming to the well to slate our thirsts We mindlessly turn on taps unaware […]
Belonging
I have survived so much
but mostly I have
survived myself
with a deep longing
for true belonging
I have survived my need
to fit in and do the things
that everyone else
believes I was born to doI have outlived the fear
of being outcast from all
that I love and that
which quietly loves me backI have found in mossy silence
the deepest root
that lies in the darkest
soil close to the core
of the earth where
sand becomes fire
where nothing lives except
sparks of future life
that hide the secret
all of us have forgottenWe belong to the earth
we are one with the stars
there are rivers that whisper
‘you are mine’
and rocks that recognise
the hardiness of your bonesNow is the time to claim
our belonging
to fight for our place
in the universe
to become
the keepers of the earth
the gazers at the stars
to become
keepers of our own belonging
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
Ripening They always told you you were a rose delicate pink and blushing in the morning sun and yet you did not believe all that you were told you held a sliver of an idea that once reached you in a vague and distant dream […]
Connection Invisible threads hold us together stitching us through lifetimes ties that cannot be severed roots of energy tapped into emotion transmitting feelings regardless of where we are in the world regardless of time distance or space numbers dialled at exactly the same time identical […]
Transformation
We fear that transformation
will change us forever
yet intrinsically a butterfly
is still made of caterpillar cells
and has memories of days
before it could fly
Sometimes a shift is brutal and fast
other times change starts in the east
a golden orb of dawning awareness
a moment where darkness turns to light
a millisecond where night surrenders
and day slowly and quietly stretches
rises to draw back the curtains and
dilutes the shadows of the pastThis gentle awakening where the truth
emerges that you will survive love
that you will outlive loss
that you will stand unchanged
yet changed forever
unfolded
the core of you the same
the experiences different and
the arc of your emotions fully lived
and you know that this is exactly
the way the pilgrimage across your
life was meant to be
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
Space A Haiku: Between you and me wide skies and roaring oceans the heart knows no space © Tanya Southey #52words52weeks
Vellichor The pages are fragile now yellowed and thinned with time but still the stories remain alive and waiting to be read to enter someone else’s life and leave a mark a sigh or second glance even with the faded ink and feathery edges which […]
Prayer
Perhaps along the way
this word became
attached to things
you lost your belief in
perhaps along the way
you lost the connection
to the divinity
that rests within each breath
the part that breathes you
the higher you that can
seek to solve and soothe
when nothing else will suffice
the power to manifest all you want
to connect your head to your heart
to weave an intention
with whispering words
that waft way beyond
the present moment
and wait way down
the track and meet you in the future
fully formed and fully delivered
just as you had intended
you the creator
you the believer
in the power of your dreams.
© Tanya Southey
#52words52weeks
Hope Hope is a bulb under frozen snow buried, dormant far from the sun it believes unequivocally that its shoots will push through the darkness It gets that the soil though cold and wet will create the urge to reach towards the unseen light […]
Mystery The great unknown is all around us yet we walk around all knowing totally right totally entrenched in our meaning making We are locked in our positions our knowingness our absolute black and white beliefs that shape our days and carve us into the […]
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