A Colorado Poet
/I’m a poetry novice, but Mary Oliver, Rumi, and Andrea Gibson are a few of my favorites.
Andrea Gibson, Colorado Poet Laureate, died Sunday at age 49. I felt like I should share some of her writing with you today.
The writings we have because of this brilliant woman’s terminal illness are instruction manuals in how to live. There are seven published volumes of poetry and a movie titled Come See Me in the Good Light about Gibson.
Profound wisdom poured out of Gibson’s soul and for that we can be so grateful. Here are a few of Gibson’s poems that I thought might speak to us today:
“This is what we do.
We gather each other up.
We say, the cup is
half yours and half mine.
We say, alone is
the last place
you will ever be.”
“When I was a kid I wanted to be famous
because I couldn’t imagine anything
more wonderful than being loved by the world.
You know what feels a million times better
than being loved by the world -
LOVING THE WORLD.”
“Sometimes the break
in your heart
is like the hole in the flute.
Sometimes it’s the place
where the music comes through.”
“Instead of depression,
try calling it hibernation.
Imagine the darkness is a cave
in which you will be nurtured
by doing absolutely nothing.
Hibernating animals don’t even dream.
It’s okay if you can’t imagine spring.
Sleep through the alarm of the world.
Name your hopelessness
a quiet hollow, a place you go
to heal, a den you dug,
Sweetheart, instead
of a grave.”
“Trauma was not being
able to get the hands
of the clock off me.
Healing was learning
no one has ever laid a fingerprint
on the part of me that’s infinite.”
“You taught me
to start breaking
every promise
I have made to my pain.
Taught me
my wounds
will never be
bigger than I am.”
“Sometimes you look
like a human scribble.
Like a two year old
has colored you in.
Like you’ve got
too many feelings
to fit inside of the lines
of your own skin.
But that, my friend,
is the masterpiece.”
“Wellness check.
In any moment,
on any given day,
I can measure
my wellness
by this question:
Is my attention on loving
or is my attention on
who isn’t loving me?”
That last one, grabs me every time. Will I spend my time loving or will I stay focused on how someone is falling short of my expectations for how they love me? A question we can all ask ourselves every day. Thank you for waking us up Andrea Gibson.
"Commit to loving yourself completely. It’s the most radical thing you will do in your lifetime."
"I may never be enlightened enough to decide how I want to die. So, this morning I’ve decided how I want to live."
Let’s decide how we want to live and go do that today.
With love,
