Every Day Is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin (manga ereader txt) 📗

I was born

on a sinking ship.

My parents abandoned me

on deck as if I were a wolf

with an oar in her mouth.

I learned how to swim,

jumped in after them

dragging our vessel behind me.

I can’t stop hoping for a crew.

I have only this cup

with a dead spider in it

and a song about

how many times my mother

sold the family pet. Rip it all

from memory and no one

will stop me because clarity

is a pearl lost somewhere

in the silky folds

of a very deep purse.

I found the horizon, the place

where the sun hits the water.

Who will I show it to?

EXERCISE FOR MEMORY

THINK OF ALL YOU’VE DONE AND LET IT WOW YOU

Sit down with a blank sheet of paper, your notebook, or use the space in this book. Give yourself more than one session with this exercise. Sometimes looking backward takes a lot of energy. Be gentle with yourself. If we look back in time, we’re able to follow a line of achievement and experience that can explain the present moment. This map can offer clarity where before there was only a blur. It can be a great exercise for presenting yourself with the bounty of your life, which you may have forgotten about. Start by answering the following questions. These are just a jumping-off point; keep writing your memories as they come to you.

Think of all you’ve done. The list will be endless, and everything adds up to show what an eventful and interesting life you’ve led. The answers can be elementary yet gratifying. After you answer these questions, you’ll have a collection of subject matter. The poetry of your past can be the essence of your current creation.

What feelings come up when you read the word past?

What incident from your past was truly transformative?

What have you done in your life that you’re proud of?

What have you learned?

What good deeds have left you with a feeling of fulfillment?

What have you made, built, designed, brought into being?

What jobs have you worked?

Have you had children?

Have you won any prizes or races?

Have you written any books?

Which books have you read?

Have you painted any paintings? Painted a house?

Have you fostered an animal in need?

Have you put in a kitchen sink?

What helped you shape your belief system?

What events caused you to trust in one thing and not another?

Have you gone to school?

Have you been in love?

Have you made a friend?

Have you seen something you thought was beautiful?

Has someone held you close while you cried?

Have you written a song?

Have you purchased a car?

Have you ridden a bike, swum in the ocean, completed a certification?

Have you eaten a delicious apple?

WRITING PRACTICE

CREATE YOUR TIMELINE

I always say the past is a map. It’s a collection of data showing us where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and who we are. My favorite part of using memory to catalyze poetic appreciation for existence is the following exercise. I decided to look back in time to find the things that made me feel, Wow! If that’s all I ever did in life, that was enough. I wrote out a list of ten things I’ve done that fill me with gratitude. For example, I’ve driven across America more than ten times, I’ve written thousands of poems for strangers that I’ll never see again, and I supported a friend struggling with a meth addiction. I wrote these experiences in my notebook and started drawing little graphs and maps of them. Then I moved on to a big piece of butcher paper to gradually draw an actual timeline starting from the day I was born.

You can begin with the year you were born, or the year you went to college, or the year your child was born—any point in time, really. You don’t even have to write dates. Just make note of anything that felt important along the way. The wonder of reality adds up in our actions, past to present. This timeline is a poem. You can add to it for the rest of your days and see how it all combines to create your one-of-a-kind human story.

Notes for your timeline:

Inspired by my timeline practice, I asked myself to think back to my very first memory, and that prompt inspired the following poem:

How I Fell in Love with the Earth

I don’t remember being born,

but I did choose to come here.

A master in the dark,

my burning light.

I shot forth, hungry

for the ground and body.

After 34 years, I trace back

to my first moment of awe.

I stood above an overturned flagstone,

staring at long nightcrawlers

worming in black soil. Inhaling

each color, mesmerized by the chance

that brought these pink lengths to life.

Their tenderness against

a thick crust that welcomed

them into fissures, into fine versions

of string sucked toward the core,

roaming blind, becoming and becoming.

Everything else was unlit space,

green grass moving in the void.

I’ve witnessed enough.

What perfection to break my heart.

POETIC MINDSET TIP

LEARN HOW TO APPRECIATE THE PAST

What have you done that wows you? That makes you appreciate your life? So many small things come together to create the poem that is our existence, so many major events are ours to endure, starting the second we take our first breath. It’s as