The Story Shared ……… Transforms

I will tell you something about stories  [he said] They aren’t just entertainment.  Don’t be fooled. They are all we have you see,         all we have to fight off illness and death You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories. He rubbed his belly. I keep them here [he said] Here, put your […]

The Conversations That Form Us

As young children we are replete with impressions, needs  and affective responses, ( feeling states). We play in the ambiance of  literal and non-literal descriptors as we  find  words to distinguish these  images and experiences.  We  relay on our short history of experience and the  interpretations that proximate adults and children  offer to  us,  through […]

Conversing With Our Hidden Selves

 In the previous  post I offered a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. This poem is a  a supplication, inviting us  to  gather up  the parts of us that have  been disinherited. The words are strong, unapologetic.   The timing, the rhythm ,  the repetition, soothing us into  ease.  Her language evokes a state.  It builds a place,  […]

Breaking The Spell of Isolation

 Infirm  Everybody here  Is infirm.  Everybody here is infirm.                Oh. Mend me. Mend me. Lord.    Today I  Say to them  Say to them say to them, Lord:  Look! I am beautiful, beautiful with  My wing that is wounded  My eye that is bonded  Or my ear not funded  Or my walk all a-wobble  I’m […]

Brokenness As Inspiration

“Everybody here Is infirm. Everybody here is infirm. Oh. Mend me. Mend me. Lord.Today I Say to them Say to them say to them, Lord: Look! I am beautiful, beautiful with My wing that is wounded My eye that is bonded Or my ear not funded Or my walk all a-wobble I’m enough to be […]