Grandmother's Prayer

During a recent trip to Mexico, my grandmother gave me a ritual to explain how to ward off feelings of fear. As part of the ritual, the prayer below is used during the sweeping of the body. For more of Mexican indigeneous sweeping rituals, see http://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~dow/personal/papers/cnms/cnms.html.

Sombra mia
Querida mia
Ven a mi
Estoy sin ti

Shade of mine
My beloved
Come to me
I am without you


The poem is a simple expression of longing. The loneliness of the speaker is apparent, but the gentle and familiar relationship between the speaker and divine protection is also expressed. The first line sees the divine as protector; the second as a lover or child. The last two lines show that complementary relationship between the speaker and the divine and the necessity that they both be present.

Why do certain poems work?

How do certain poems evoke emotion in others? My favorite poems posess space and silence, or juxtapose ordinary words to encapsulate something inexpressible.

For example, the surrender of one person to another expressed without mentioning the word 'surrender' or 'yield', but rather describing it by using an extended metaphor and then a simile in e.e. cumming's poem, Somewhere I Have Travelled:

Or if your wish be to close me, ['Close me'; so harsh]
i and my life will shut [Using 'my life' really drives home the extent of the yielding]
very beautifully, suddenly, [Grace, willingness]
as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow [Not knowing, but imagining; why?]
carefully everywhere descending;

What touches me in this way that I can simply state what the emotion is so full and deep that it simply spills out of my mouth or through my pen without in this seemingly effortless way?

A Place for Writing

Here I plan to create my new space for poetry and writing. I don't want to lay out any specific plans for what I hope arises here, but I plan to explore my own propensity for poetry/ and discuss my own love for poetry/writing.