Hello dear friends,

Happy New Moon!  What new ideas, projects, or adventures are growing in your life these days?

The poetry reading on the 28th went very well.  I’m so appreciative that so many of “my people” came to hear and support me, and I had a really good time.  I also took along three of my paintings that go along with some of my poetry.  A real blessing that came out of the experience is that it did a lot for the “imposter syndrome” that so many of us struggle with:  I feel more confident in claiming that yes, I am a poet and artist.

One of the newer poems that I read was “Wildness has Visited”, dubbed “The Deer Poem” by a friend:

 

It snowed.  Again.

It’s been a helluva spring, this year.

Yet the white blanket sparkling in the sunshine IS pretty. . .

Underneath the crabapple tree, though,

The snow is trampled

and chocolate droppings are now

fertilizing the lawn.

What a mess!

The deer have visited in the night!

Hungry, they’re cleaning up the last of the crabapples.

I don’t know where they come from —

those deer had to walk through a lot of city neighborhoods

to get to my house.

It thrills me, thinking of their presence,

blessing my neighborhood of little boxes all in a row.

Wildness has visited, anointing my front yard.

Invisible, persistent,

the wild is surviving,

finding what is needed

to keep on going.

Long, long time ago

Holy people would wear headdresses of deer antlers.

The antlers, branching toward the heavens,

become a tree of life to ascent to the spirits.

The antlers reach out to pick up new ideas on the wind.

The antlers plow through deep snow

making way for others to go on on their way,

creating paths to food and survival.

My dear crabapple eating deer,

show me how to climb the tree of life,

teach me to pick up new ideas floating round my head,

remind me to make way

to find soul food and survival

and to leave paths for others to find their way, too.

Dear wild, wild deer,

come find us in our little boxes, all in a row.

Show me how to, like you,  spark hope

with the mess made while you clean up, use up,

all the leftover abundance.

All the leftover abundance, all around us,

right in front of our noses.

 

Thank you for reading my work!

With much love and many blessings,

Cat