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

Where is this room of my own?

I arranged the tarot cards

in a fan for the future.

Go where you can reach everyone.

Go where you are loved already by many old friends.

Go to the place that will spread your voice the farthest.

I brushed two brown spiders

from the doorway and they curled up

like peppercorns.

Outside, I stood barefoot

in the wet grass, the sun appeared

as a full melon, a disc of light.

I stared up at Baby Tooth,

my mountain in the mist.

I asked my questions again

and this peak, so small

against the other alps, started speaking.

I heard four syllables, the name

of a hot southern city. It took me

a year to accept the invitation,

but a mountain had demanded direction

and I needed to follow its lead.

WRITING PRACTICE

WHAT ARE YOU ASKING FOR?

WHAT PATH IS ALREADY OPEN?

Use the pages here or take out your journal and write down anything that’s happed today that felt like guidance, like a sign or a suggestion. Is the weather telling you to stay inside or to go outside? Do you feel rushed or ready to relax? Do you have time to write, or are you hurrying through routine tasks? How is the universe saying yes to what you truly need right now? To understand this better, first you have to know what you need!

Try writing out your own dream fortune for the day, for the week, for the year. How would you like to see your story unfold? If you could have it your way, what would it look like? Write all of these dreams down and then take note: What is the universe making easy for you? What paths have opened up? How have you tried to move in the direction of your dreams? What has gotten in your way? What lines have you already cast to help make these dreams come true?

I practice this kind of manifestation writing often, discerning what I actually want my life to look like, focusing on the potential and possibilities and then turning them into visions that I flesh out on the page. This always leads me to something succinct that I can call closer. Not something to grasp or to be too sure of, but a feeling of clarity that shows me I’m awake, listening, engaged with the signs and symbols that provide proof I’m on the right path. This path is poetic and changing. If I can remember that the universe is indeed holding me in every moment, then clarity is much more accessible. If I let the universe guide me, if I try to stay in the flow every day and note what’s open to me, then I can walk forward with less resistance and vagueness. Writing about this offers me a lucid perspective that helps me consider the entire picture.

Future

I can’t see my future clearly.

It’s a wash of color and light.

Maybe a glimpse of a house

with wood floors, the death

of a parent, a dog, a cat, a love,

but nothing certain. I like its fog.

Inevitably something will happen, pieces

will fall into place if I keep breathing

and I’ll eat, I’ll work, I’ll learn

and know and forget. There’ll be

another bowl full of berries, a hot cup

of tea, additional travel and sorrow.

There’ll be a clean pair of pants,

the sun’s good glow, a cut and blood,

a hole to dig, a bath to take, a mistake to mend.

What lies ahead is a promise

standing in shadow, one second

pasted to the next. I don’t need to call it

by name. A riddle ensues, a song of guessing,

a vow of risk. The road becomes itself

single stone after single stone

made of limitless possibility,

endless awe.

List some openings, signs, and moments of guidance that recently brought ease or clarity into your life:

What is your future vision?

POETIC MINOSET TIP

THE POWER IN MAKING POETIC MANTRAS

I’m a big fan of positive affirmations and thought patterns. I feel we can conjure up clarity by replacing our confusing thoughts with transparent, poetic ones. This is a practice of making mantras, or short poems that I can say again and again throughout the day to remain focused and unblocked. When something is hard, I like to remind myself: everything is exactly as it should be. How could it not be? This is the life we all live; it is what it is. And so, when it all seems to go astray or off-kilter it’s important to remind ourselves that we are enough, doing everything we can do to show up with our best, and if we aren’t showing up we can learn how to because we have all the tools we need. Poetic mantras are bits of advice we give ourselves to stay the course, keep our heads above water, and to remain clear as we let the universe show us the way. I highly recommend reading Louise Hay’s book You Can Heal Your Life for countless affirmations that will inspire you to write your own.

chapter 10

PERMISSION TO BE A POET

And to be poetic, truly, does not

mean to escape from life but

does mean life raised to intense

significance and higher power.

—FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

You have permission to love the poetic part of yourself, to work at that piece inside of you until it comes out in words, to gather up all of your swirling ideas and make sense of them in language. You can be a poet who never writes, a secret poet, a poet who appreciates the craft but keeps their journal locked away from others. You don’t have to call yourself a poet to be one. This can be a private journey of naming and processing feelings. But if you’re looking to give yourself over to this artistry in a more profound way, there are a few things you can commit to that will make your writing process that much more of a