shamash says...

"I Forgot to Tell You"

Day 9 of 30: Global Poetry Writing Month and National Poetry Writing Month

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Today’s NaPoWriMo challenge is to write a poem that includes a line that you’re afraid to write; something that you’re genuinely a little scared to say.

This is by far my favorite prompt, and certainly the juiciest.

I could write a poem a day for a year.... for a decade.... on this prompt alone.

 

  

"Even at the time that the pebbles are being counted out, be not frightened, nor terrified; tell no lies."  

- The Tibetan Book of the Dead

 

 

"I Forgot to Tell You"

 

I am dying.

I say

 

Why did you wait so long to tell us?

they say

 

Isn’t there something more you can do?

they say

  

There isn’t anything more that can be done.

I say 

 

I am dying.

You are dying

We are all dying.

 

Each morning we wake, one more day

Marching toward

The end

 

 

I am dying

I say

 

I waited this long to tell you because

You already knew.

I say

 

 

Sometimes

You just forget.

 

 

© Kat Shamash, April 9, 2016

"Remember the Deep Root of Your Being"

"The Deep Root of Your Being"

Bamboo Grove, The Hill Country, Maymyo, B.u.r.m.a., April 2009

photo by shamash

The truth of these words by my favorite 13th century Persian mystic cuts me to the core:

There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there's nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life.

Figuring out what to do with the rest of my life…

Lately I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the second half of my life. (image via)

Like Chris Corrigan, I ask myself these questions:

Post Secrets

"It all began with an idea Frank Warren had for a community art project. He began handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places -- asking people to write down a secret they had never told anyone and mail it to him, anonymously."

I spent one hour at a bookstore.

I read but one book.

It made me cry.

Buy it here.

Read about it here.

So.

Much.

Honesty.

(image via Post Secret)

Powerful Beyond Measure

.....Image from Photography Blog.....

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."

Split: Pennsylvania

No, this isn't me. But it could be. All around my parents’ home here in rural Pennsylvania, I see freshly plowed fields, ready for spring

Image via Meirav Heiman: Talmei Yekiel, from the series "Split", 2003

planting. If I look out the window to the right, this is what I see (the field, that is: not the woman.) I’ve spent hours traversing the country roads. During my five-mile hikes, I pass Amish farmers with their 6-team horses, tilling the land.

They seem to know what direction to go, unlike me.

I am split in two.

Torn.

Pappy died on the first day of spring this year. And now, the family is faced with a new season of its own.

I Tell Them This

So many people have been asking me about this.

I tell them this.

And I always get a good laugh. Life is full of ironies. The Universe has a good sense of humor.

In Your Face: Facing Your Fears

I am afraid of heights, spiders, snakes, and elephant trunks. So, I jumped out of many planes, allowed spiders of all kinds to crawl on my arms and legs until I grew to love them, and, while camping in the Bolivian jungle, held an 8-foot boa constrictor around my neck .

As for elephant trunks? I haven't yet conquered that fear. I will, though. Mark my words, folks. Mark my words.