Stephanie participated in our April 2014 Poem-A-Thon. A poem written by each participant appeared in our Summer 2014 Digital Issue. Download and read all the participants’ poems.
I had stayed too long.
Pluto’s arms were cold but calm
And the thought of the climb
And return,
The grit in my mouth
And the dirt,
And the uncertain birth…
With this pomegranate in the dark
Giving solace enough
(Six seeds not yet grown
A taste of life on the tongue
And the cold burn of a jeweled sun)
To drowse drown
The echo of
The pain
Of my mother’s calling down
The winter gloom.
This tomb this womb,
This moment of choice:
Remain as if dead
Or stillborn?
The umbilical strangling the neck
at the root and aborting the climb.
Or to find that tight cage canal
And let the life urge push up
And along?
—
Since 2011, when she had a near-death drowning experience, Stephanie has been writing poetry as a daily spiritual practice. She sees writing as “vocation” in its deepest sense and believes as Rumi says, “you must become the pen in the Sun’s hand…” Stephanie lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
This is a small representation of the high-quality writings you’ll find in every issue of TIFERET.
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