musings, life lessons & poetry from Theresa Jarosz Alberti

Tag: poetry (Page 1 of 8)

Pre-Election Survival Poem

Maybe you’re like me– having some trouble with worry and preoccupation and watching or listening or reading too much about the coming 2024 election. All the hype and commentary and analysis and play-by-play that goes on and on. Sometimes it’s hard for me to focus on my own life, and my mental health gets wobbly when I get too caught up in it all.

Yesterday I wrote about it, trying to help myself get some perspective and calm down. I came up with this poem, and I want to share it in case it might be helpful for anyone else who’s also struggling. I’ll probably still watch at least part of the big debate tonight, but I’m intending to limit my scrolling and hand-wringing afterward.

Here’s the video I made, and the text below. Peace, my friends!


It’s starting to happen again,
that pre-election fear ramping up, my heart
beating against my chest like a moth trapped
in a jar as I watch the train wreck coming closer,
the dark storm clouds rolling in, and it seems
there’s nothing I can do but watch it.

So I watch it,
my screens filling up with politics and loud
voices and warnings and clips and snippets
and fear. The worst is
coming coming coming,
the ignorant hate pouring endlessly from a mouth
that no one seems to know how to stop despite
laws and checks and balances and common sense and decency.
Common sense and decency don’t make money,
so it will not be stopped. It’s just too viciously seductive
to have us ramp up every day, our collective fears flocking
like crows cawing out as we fly in frantic circles
towards that doomsday, or a possible
last-minute save.

But today,  I can save myself. 

I’ve given money, I’ll write letters soon, but for today
I can unwring my hands, soften the knot
in my chest. Breathe.
Remind myself that watching and worrying
won’t help anyone. Step outside and look up
at the actual sky, not the pre-recorded
sky image on a screen. The vast blue expanse above me
with trees raising their leafy limbs in the free air.
Breathe in this freedom.
Just for today.

Divorce Surgery

Today would have been my 35th wedding anniversary if my ex and I had stayed married (he left 4 years ago, and the divorce has been final for almost a year and a half).  It’s strange to have these days come along, an old anniversary that we used to celebrate and share the memories of, and now, not. But it’s still a big memory of a day that was special, so I tip my hat and acknowledge it for myself, feel the pangs of both happy thoughts and grief (which s-l-o-w-l-y softens over time).

Today feels like a good day to share a poem I’ve been working on for 2 years and finally finished. It took a long time and word-puzzling to have it say what I really want to say, using surgery as a metaphor. I think a lot of people can relate to the topic, considering the divorce rates. I’m including an audio of me reading the poem, so you can read or listen if you’re interested. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think!

 

DIVORCE SURGERY

1.
They stand before us in suits, not scrubs,
no scalpels or scopes in sight.
The cuts will be just as deep and precise
as they bisect us,
me from you,
you from me,
peering inside organs we’d grown to share
in our co-joined state,
snipping the sinews,
separating tendons and muscle
from bone.

But how? Continue reading

Poetry Challenge Day 15: “Earth Day Sonnet”

One of the prompts this week was to write a sonnet. I haven’t written one since I can’t remember when, so I wanted to give it a try. Writing structured poetry to a form is kind of like a puzzle, trying to make the lines and the rhymes work out. The sonnet form has 14 lines with 10 syllables per line. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (each letter being a particular rhyme). Here’s what I came up with.

Earth Day Sonnet

You’re looking rather peaked, my dear Earth.
Has our party been getting out of hand?
Thanks for hosting our rave of endless mirth,
despite our dancing heating up your land.

We appreciate the resources you share.
You’re huge, you have so much to give!
Your fossil fuels, plants and animals, the air,
water, soil, and food we need to live.

Oh, your ice caps melt and weather’s getting crazy?
Oh darn, but don’t ask us to change our ways.
It’s fine right now, and the future’s just too hazy.
Surely there’s time to fix it all someday.

Hopefully we’ll soon get past our deep delusions,
to heal you, dear Earth, with creative solutions!


Photos  by Nikola Jovanovic and Melissa Askew of Unsplash.com. Art by me.

Poetry Challenge Day 12: “Not Too Late”

No poem yesterday. In an attempt to slay my own perfectionistic tendencies, I’ve decided to relax my goal of doing a poem a day, if a particular day doesn’t work out. To be honest, my drive to be accountable makes me cringe and feel anxious at the idea of NOT achieving the goal I publicly committed to, and yet when I finally let myself off the hook, I was able to relax. So this is progress for me! I still want to try to write a poem a day this month, but if it doesn’t work out, I’m not going to beat myself up.

That said, today’s poem is actually one I wrote in the poetry challenge of 2018. It has recently been popping its head up and I’ve had a few people express interest in hearing it. So I will post it here– it’s a message that I myself need to be reminded of again and again. I hope it may be helpful to others too.

Not Too Late

Continue reading

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