Nancy Lankston
She who reconciles the ill-matched threads
of her life, and weaves them gratefully
into a single cloth—
it’s she who drives the loudmouths from the hall
and clears it for a different celebration
where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it’s you she receives.
You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking center of her monologues.
With each disclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you.
~Rainer Maria Rilke
☽☾
#SelfLove
“I am dreaming back my sisters
Whisper-worn footfalls on the Temple steps
Skywalkers
Storm dwellers
Heavy-breasted cauldron keepers
Songweavers
Snake sisters
Darkmoon dancers
Labyrinth builders
Star bridgers
Fiery-eyed dragon-ryders
Wind seekers
Shape shifters
Corn daughters
Wolf women
Earth stewards
Gentle-handed womb sounders
Dream spinners
Flame keepers
Moon birthers
Come home sisters, come home”
~Marie Elena Gaspari
She wants to meet the serpent
Have a chat with Eve in the garden
Before she was banished
For the sin
Of wise curiosity.
She longs to sit with Medusa,
Gazing into her eyes
While M recounts
The whole sordid tale
From her point of view.
She craves dinner with Lilith
And all her beasts
On a beach overlooking a sea of red.
They will talk until the full moon rises
Then dance with Cybele until dawn
She wishes to hear stories of HER
The Great Goddess
Stories that lie long buried
Beneath a pile of myths and legends
Told for millennia in a male voice.
She longs to learn more, so much more
About Her lineage
Her story
Her wisdom
From the she’s who came before.
And so she sits quietly waiting.
She senses every story of Her Is still here,
Hidden in ripples on still water
In bird song at dawn
And the flicker of flame in the night.
So she sits
She listens
She waits
Holding her longing
Close.
~Nancy Lankston
This was Inspired by the faces of the women of Congress watching Trump’s State of the Union speech…
Blah blah blah
Blah blah
Are you trying to impress me?
Because it’s not working.
What exactly is your point?
Maybe there isn’t one.
Maybe you simply love
the sound of you own voice.
Blah blah blah
Blah blah
This voice of authority
Lecture series of yours
Bores me spit-less.
Oh, I’ve smiled politely
For my entire life
As ‘important’ guys
Explained the world to me.
It’s getting old, so old.
Blah blah blah
Blah blah
It’s way past time
To reveal my true face.
My nobody cares face.
My you’re so full of shit face.
My do you impress yourself face.
My holy Hell, who put you in charge face.
Blah blah blah
Blah blah.
Times up.
One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring,
One smile can begin a friendship,
One hand can lift a soul,
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal,
One sunbeam can light a room,
One candle can wipe out darkness,
One laugh can conquer gloom,
One hope can raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care,
One voice can wake up everybody,
One life can make the difference.
Be that one.
-Author Unknown
Image: Old Ponderosa by Nancy L
May a good vision catch me
May a benevolent vision take hold of me, and move me
May a deep and full vision come over me, and burst open around me
May a luminous vision inform me, enfold me.
May I awaken into the story that surrounds,
May I awaken into the beautiful story.
May the wondrous story find me;
May the wildness that makes beauty arise between two lovers
arise beautifully between my body and the body of this land,
between my flesh and the flesh of this earth,
here and now,
on this day,
May I taste something sacred.
~David Abram
I water things now constantly:
water the hearts of dead friends with light,
the sores of the living with anything warm,
water the skies with a thousand affections
and follow the voices of animals
into grasses that move like ocean.
I eat flowers now and birds come.
I eat care and things to love arrive.
I eat time and as I age
whatever I swallow grows timeless.
I eat and undie
and water my doubts
with silence
and birds come.
~Mark Nepo
excerpt from Surviving Has Made Me Crazy