Poem: Together and Alone

I haven’t written anything lately, nor have I taken pictures… but I have enjoyed being able to spend more time with my family.  It is not that I am taking time away, but that my time is needed so much elsewhere.  My oldest is getting ready for college next year (don’t even get me started on how much work that is).  She is also showing interest in her Fashion Design class and I have had to teach her sewing.  My next youngest has been working on getting her poetry published and getting herself organized during these high school years.  I’ve been teaching her time management skills, study skills, and planning and development of her creative writing.  My youngest girl has been struggling with scoliosis.  She now wears a brace and often suffers with pain.  I’ve been taking her weekly to a chiropractor and an acupuncturist and this has helped… but takes a lot of time away from other things.  She also has been doing independent studies (with me as her guide) in baking as her greatest desire is to own a bakery someday.  I am also teaching her to cook savory dishes as my waistline can’t handle sweets every week!  My young man has been busy writing stories and following wherever his imagination takes him.

 

It has been a wild ride, filled with stress, and growth, beauty, and love – I would not exchange it for anything.  I have learned that sometimes we have to step away from what our heart desires in order to find that silence in our hearts that signals growth and allows us to find our way back.  I am still here and I have missed you greatly, but I am also thankful for the experiences I have been blessed to be a part of.  I am not only watching my babies grow up, but I am also trying to be a positive part of that experience.  I have to believe that it makes all the difference in the world.

 

Poem written for the image below, taken at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

 

 

Together and Alone

 

She listens

in unspoken longing

to the sounds

of whispered resemblance,

for beneath

the pomp and circumstance,

she knows –

they all breathe the same,

though their pouted petals,

their fragrant display,

and their refined vessels,

bespeak of greater virtue,

thought their worth

is shaped by the

indiscriminate

germination of seed.

At one time, perhaps,

their throats all

filled with song

and prose fell

from their swollen tongues,

as different dialects

and diverse uttered syllables

reverberated in their scents

not one – far reaching,

but a crescendo of beauty

together and alone

unimpaired by vain desire,

but thankful –

to carry their own beauty

and amplify the splendor

of their collective song.

 

© Sumyanna 2018

 

May we someday learn to sing together again.