poemcrazy: listening to ourselves

"We have to start with ourselves before we can reach beyond ourselves." Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, poemcrazy

i am a waterfall

     pummeling the cool pool rocks
     that await below

     disturbing your slumber with
     a bolt of lightning liquid
     chill

you cower and crave me in synchrony

     resisting the weight of
     my current
    
     strengthening in the
     isometry of our
     acquaintance.

I am afraid to be exposed, but here it is right on the page. The exercise Woolridge offers is to listen to myself, by answering a list of questions with the first word that comes to mind. After all the words and questions answered, the poem that emerges is not really about me at all but myself in relationship to something or someone. This is where it is easy for me, to see myself in light of other people. But these words are my ticket to go deeper and keep writing...who is just me?

In another section of the book, the exercise is to write about "where do you come from".  I am left-handed so I decided to write using my right hand (another suggestion from the book)and these words emerged:

"i come from a land that is foreign to my soul, chaos erupting
from rage overflowed my half-filled cup like a cheap soda from a shook up can. what should have been a satisfying delight a sip of sweet fizzle was instead an ambush of sticky liquid and uncontainable foam. and the responsibility to clean it all up.  my soul was made of gossamer, at least it started out that way.  over time and exposure the silken threads hardened and wore away until they resembled more of a potato sack burlap. itchy and porous and dull to the senses."

Maybe my shadow is awaiting in my right hand?  I am not sure who she is but I will listening more to what she has to say.  Her voice, though unfamiliar to me, is sure of what she knows to be true.