(Wendy Cabell, published in Network: Fall 2022, edited by Michelle Miller and team, International Women’s Writing Guild, 2022. From July 2022.)
Emergence Notes
(on Margie Ann Stanko’s “Emergence” series,
IWWG Conference, July 25-July 27, 2022)
1. Day one, “Unknowing”
Change Greets Me With Love
(cave’s signpost)
soft glow, scoots
edges out of hiding:
emergency supplies,
apologies,
medical records;
hands note interweave:
hot tea,
lullabies,
click of Rosary beads–
hold them now.
2. Day two, “Resilience”
Eye Witness
What does it take to start looking inward
and outward like an artist (or even better an
heARTist) and sense what yet has to emerge?
–Margie Ann Stanko
Great Grandma Ginny, softest touch, “See this,
Honey” pulling out her Scapular, or setting out
chocolate chip cookies, or ushering me into her
quiet, breezy room. I can nestle here as the family
chats--booming staccato. As I snooze before spaghetti
dinner, spot a cloud or two just outside. As inside flutter
settles, eye blinks. Later, young adult eyes upon
my therapist, who says “Honey, what did Grandma
Ginny do?" Nudges consider in current scene,
my feeling powerless can only offer hand–-
listen, hush--as a memory’s up, of mask’s
slip, gentle hands having loosened its grip
not with speeches or with stuff but with
space, a Presence–
and enough.
3. Day three, “Thriving”
To Love Truth
To love truth
is true strength
is strength for peace
is peace beyond that of mind,
is of another kind,
kindness, tender touch,
being what touches
truth.
*Images above, being part of each day’s prompts, are photos of sculptures from Frederick Franck's "Pacem in Terris", a contemplative sculpture garden in Warwick, NY.
