COME ALIVE by Alise Versella

This is a poem about the earth and the moon and sun…

It’s about how our roots run deep into the sacramental dirt, how connected we are to all of it, and how life is full of so much wonder if only we open our eyes to our dreams. Come alive with me!

come alive

by Alise Versella

wake up and feel the sunlight warm your face in the morning

know that that warmth is from the arms of a star burning

fanning its flames in an ebony galaxy

dappled with ivory lights

feel the pull of the ocean in your belly

growling, hungry

know that that pull is your mother moon tugging her star child back to her gently in the last violet haze of slumber and dreamscapes

you are of that moon woman

your cycles in rhythm with that cratered heart beat

reflecting off the black sea

you shed your tapestry of humanity some nights

to howl your primal needs as you become the beast

run alongside your darkness in delight

come alive

feel your hands in the mother earth

    the dark soil    

            the sacramental dirt

take comfort in the shade of grandfather trees

with their whorls and wrinkles

those saplings you plant will grow into sturdy sons

to shade your daughters when you are gone

feel your toes in sand

            in salt

                in sidewalk

and relish the prints you can leave behind

the disappearing shadow of a traveling heart on her journey moving mountains across the globe

see the genie globe and free him

his turban is tattered and his slippers are scuffed

he has spent centuries waiting to release gold dust

the world is in need of it

come alive with golden wonder

for there are far more that seven wonders to see

as long as your eyes hold vision

always hold a vision of a dream

come alive until life is undone

and when walking forward seems too hard

take your legs and run.

(Find more of Alise's poetry in our new book! Just click here) 

Alise Versella:  I am a 24 year old poet living in the pinelands of New Jersey. Poetry has always been the ether in my veins and the oxygen I breathe. It is my Five Foot Voice, my Onion Heart, I am peeling back the layers of myself like a lotus unfurling its petals in order to grow fully in the waters that can sometimes weigh us down. I’m writing poetry to find myself, I’m writing poetry to save the world. My hope it that my poetry saves someone’s world from crumbling because I believe art has the power to hold us up when we can’t find the legs to stand. You can visit me at my Facebook page here or on my website here. And my third volume of poetry, A Few Wild Stanzas, is available 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!~