Journey of the Heart

This poem came to me after hearing from an old childhood friend… She is the one who gave me "Her Shoes." It was written in honor of the kindness we show to other women, and girls, and the beauty that exists in giving without expecting anything in return. For, if giving comes with any expectation it's truly not giving at all. I remember my friend's kindness, so many years ago, was so free from expecting that I give her anything in return. I felt such comfort because of it.  So now I offer my gently used items to other women in hopes they receive them with as much appreciation and comfort as I once received these shoes from my friend.   Her Shoes She gave me her gently used shoes, though too big for my standard size seven. I’d stuff toilet paper inside the toes of them like a ballerina with the box encasing the dancer’s toes, supporting her feet as she pirouettes and dances on point. I stuffed my red ballet flats so they wouldn...

Heidegger said that we find ourselves in "thrownness."  In other words, we are thrown into the world as we find it, and we piece ourselves and the world together from our surroundings. This poem reflects a time in my life that was very happy yet also very painful, when I worked in an x-rated video store. I knew that some of the people came to the store for human contact, whatever a smile meant to them, and yes, I had real connections to some of them. I am able to dole out small dollops of random kindness for no reason at all. Those were also my years in College studying creative writing, and I had a wonderful group of friends. We all had hard lives in Montreal, which is a rough town, according to Americans, but we had fun, and shared our knowledge and learned from one another. Although my circle of friends are not in the poem per se, I still feel I was very vibrant and loving at the time because I was surrounded by the good energy of friendship. ...