Note: everyone should be able to access the above SoundCloud file, whether or not you have a SoundCloud account. Please let me know if you have any issues listening. Thank you!
This is your time
You are glowing under the moon
You are shining near the fire
You will arise each morning
Moving yourself up to the highlands of your own heart
Keep going
You deliciously sweet framework of brains and bones
Your existence is a miracle
But don’t force a smile
Instead, honor your humanity
Speak in sentences of bouquets and thorns
Dig in the dirt and pull up the weeds of your past
Stretch the length of your body
Along the trunk of a tree
Raise your hand to the branches in the sky and
Wrap your fingers around the largest
Keenest
Truest
Fruit
You can find.
"Shine" was published in QUIVER: spoken words returned to the page, by Kimberlee Adonna (2023). Publishing house: Read or Green Books.
Happy Diwali to all who celebrate this Festival of Lights!
Onward into deep Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere...