Poetry performances can be booked by contacting Sheryl
water carriers
we are the water keepers
carriers of all shed tears
we tread carefully, not to spill them
as we journey across times years
we bear them in buckets
traveling miles of land
we take them where they are needed
to parched dry of desert sands
for days we walk
singing old prayers
that keep these waters alive
for they must feed our earth
these tears you’ve wept
the pain you’ve felt
as you cried
we are the women
chosen by our grandmothers
when our hearts
were soft and wide
gift of the feminine
wisdom of the womb
is to hold emotion
for ones tribe
the Mother
red dirt
color of blood
covers my hands
my feet deep in rich mud
through sacred passage
I am clothed in earth
my skin is Hers
on this ancient altar
covered in ash
cleansed from within
I sweat out vicious demons
purge my wrath of sins
She lights me on fire
to burn myself away
then brings me back
from a foot
in death’s grave
painting my face
with the mark of Her line
drawing prayer on my palms
with mysterious signs
She now demands
my life as her own
wet clay in her grasp
I do
atone
what the owl said
in this stillness
breathe your self apart
letting air dance between atoms
as unknown fills distance between heart beats
let yourself be as cloud and delicate breeze
lifting off
with subtle change of light
I am Earth
i am earth
and from my body
grow the trees
you chop down
with your careless acts
i am ocean
for from my womb
all beings are birthed
i am desert
my long, voluptuous curves
burnt golden
by august sun
my blood
the dying rivers
you pollute
with discarded greed
my breasts
are sacred mountains
climbed
for your ego’s sake of reaching the top
your summit
my nipple
without soft, tenderness of touch
that is required for such a holy journey
you, who call me home
i am not something to be bought or sold
i am alive
and in the eyes of every living creature
you will find me
their mother
mirrored back to you
do you dare look?
can you hold my gaze?
will you run your fingers through
my sunlight hair of wheat at harvest?
that same nourishing grain
that you paint with poison
for your benefit?
and do you care?
when you stain the path of this delicate wrist
as you wind your way through
my enchanted forests of pine?
you, my child,
who call yourself king
have scratched my skin raw
etching your name across virgin land
dark bruises
mark my thighs
as you drill down
into the deepest marrow
of my bones
searching for more
more silver
more gold
more of my life giving waters
you continue to ask for more
more of my precious milk
more of my cherished stone
you always want more
and i give it
again and again and again
i give
but now
my pets
i have run dry
i stretch
i moan
and i quake
i brake open in pain
i am rain
i burn
i flame
i heat
i erupt with the force of my grief
and then
i cry
for days and days and days
i cry
and you, my dears,
still look to my husband’s heavens
asking why
what the wolf said
palm to palm
palm to paw
paw to earth
earth to root
root to trunk
trunk to branch
branch to wing
wing to petal
petal to wind
wind to breath
breath to life
life to body
body to earth
earth into body
body receives life
life as breath
breath exhales wind
wind touches petal
petal offers wing
wing embraces branch
branch reaches trunk
trunk connects root
root feeds earth
earth kisses paw
paw touches palm
palm holds palm
this is the circle
no beginning
and no end
elephant tree
i came across an elephant tree
in low, hushed tones
she whispered a plea
please take this branch
and draw a circle round me
the people have forgotten who i am, you see
legs to root
grey bark from skin
tusk to trunk
i know who she’s been
remember a time in kenya
long ago
when the elephants circled me
then stilled, as stone
they breathed me
into silent space
nose to tail
their bodies laced
they stopped all time
then stretched it out
until the matriarch lead
with a wave of her snout
it’s time to move on
she sang to her group
and off they went
unhooking the loop
now here i sit
at the foot of this tree
listening to legends
of a great species
who buried the bones
of their dead
in this earth
so they’d turn into trees
when their next life
did birth
my practice
i heal the earth
i heal myself
i cleanse the earth
i cleanse myself
i care for the earth
i care for myself
i am the earth
as myself
