LEARNING TO FLY by Edith Lazenby

I wrote this poem the other night for a friend, as a gift, a way of sharing understanding of how many ways a heart can break.

Like any who’ve lived life, if lucky actually, they’ve known love; and then learned what they knew as love had roots in something other than compassion, giving and true care.

As the Native American saying goes: the more the heart breaks, the stronger it grows.

I find the creative process feeds the heart in all ways. A child can be the product of many things, but in an ideal world, a child results because of the love of a man and a woman. Or today, same-sex partners can find a means to have a child with the love they share.

Being childless, I don’t have that blessing. But I do have a loving partner [after several who were not] and I have writing, yoga and faith. I can lose everything else I know, but even life cannot take those three.

Learning to Fly

Feelings crack my heart

Like an egg with a chick

That’s wants to peep:

Instead I see a yolk

Run with blood in the center

And though I am making

Eggs for my kids

Like I usually do, all I scramble

And beat takes my insides

Out as I toss in the butter

And begin to cook.

What’s cooked and roasted

Is a spirit that wants to thrive

When instead each breath

Stops at my throat

And I chortle and choke

To find the pain of dying

Like the baby bird

That could not grow wings.

My feathers were plucked

Before they could ever fly

And I know if I could bury

What never found life,

A part that cries

Might grow wings

As I find meaning in pain

Only time can treat.

I decide to curl into a ball

And imagine a woman

Holding me as if my love

A womb able

To birth a joy

Pain won’t let me know.

And as I lay in the embrace

I learn that woman is me,

And slowly a healing

Plants a seed as I find

My way to a limb

Of a tree and look up

To feel the sun warming me,

Getting ready to spread my wings.

Edith Lazenby: “I love to write. I began writing poetry in elementary school. Sometimes I write poetry daily, other times not. I adore Mary Oliver, her way of embracing the light while acknowledging the darkness. I teach yoga full time and find the practice has grounded me deeper in my body and heart and helped me move closer to what I call spirit. I also now edit for Elephant Journal and write for them as well. I live with my husband, who is my best friend, and 4 kitties. Life holds challenges yet with time I feel better able to live in the moment, moment by moment. All great teachers teach presence. I find each day is a lesson in being. The process of writing holds me and I find the craft teaches me something new each time. You may visit my blog here.

~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~

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