We hardly leave any time for self-care and healing among the mounting deadlines and growing fear of impending finals. When was the last time you allowed yourself to slow down, sit in the silence, and breathe? There is no better moment to crawl under the covers, open a poem, and lose yourself in the swirls of artistry and emotion embedded in each line than on a chilly winter night like this one.
Enjoy the five poems I’ve collected to help you tonight.
White-Eyes – Mary Oliver
In winter all the singing is in the tops of the trees where the wind-bird with its white eyes shoves and pushes among the branches. Like any of us he wants to go to sleep, but he’s restless— he has an idea, and slowly it unfolds from under his beating wings as long as he stays awake. But his big, round music, after all, is too breathy to last. So, it’s over. In the pine-crown he makes his nest, he’s done all he can. I don’t know the name of this bird, I only imagine his glittering beak tucked in a white wing while the clouds— which he has summoned from the north— which he has taught to be mild, and silent— thicken, and begin to fall into the world below like stars, or the feathers of some unimaginable bird that loves us, that is asleep now, and silent— that has turned itself into snow.
milk and honey – rupi kaur
love will come and when love comes love will hold you love will call your name and you will melt sometimes though love will hurt you but love will never mean to love will play no games cause love knows life has been hard enough already
Self-Care – Solmaz Sharif
Have you tried rose hydrosol? Smokey quartz in a steel bottle of glacial water? Tincture drawn from the stamens of daylilies grown on the western sides of two-story homes? Pancreas of toad? Deodorant paste? Have you removed your metal fillings? Made peace with your mother? With all the mothers you can? Or tried car exhaust? Holding your face to the steaming kettle? Primal screamed into a down-alternative pillow in a wood while tree-bathing? Have you finally stopped shoulding all over yourself? Has your copay increased? Right hip stiffened? Has the shore risen as you closed up the shop? And have you put your weight behind its glass door to keep the ocean out? All of it? Rang the singing bowl next to the sloping toilet? Mainlined lithium? Colored in another mandala? Have you looked yourself in the mirror and found the blessed halo of a ring light in each iris? Have you been content enough being this content? Whose shop was it?
Pillow Thoughts – Courtney Peppernell
be easy now take some time to clear the rubble in your head and teach your heart that some things are better left unsaid don’t worry if sometimes things break and change and burn because these are things to help you learn and I know they’re still a part of you inked into your skin like a damaged tattoo just don’t forget to love yourself too
alaska – Madisen Kuhn
you are not a hospital room you don’t have to keep everything pure-white and sterile you are ugly red clay on the walls covering up your bruises with pink cotton-candy fluff and bright yellow smiley-face stickers that you saved from first grade living out of your car and calling it a slumber party; sleep-away camp far away from the monsters beneath your bed you don’t have to paint your cheeks with roses, leaving out parts of you like a mad libs story we played to pass the time on long car rides to the coast we can sit in silence while the world around us buzzes with all its uncertain chaos and my soul will find yours in the space that rests above this mess of existing.
The poetry I’ve collected for you on this winter night have now come to an end. I hope these have given you some food for thought and helped clear your mind. Goodnight, and stay warm.
credits to the authors mentioned above
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