Ekphrastic #7: Transparent Human + Podcast on Motherhood with Sherry Taveras
We are all made of broken things.
My focus this month is on the body. One of the reasons I wanted to share with you some of my writings on this is that the last five years have been an intense period of growth in my life. Both complex and acute trauma truncated my ability to be “in my body:” to recognize its signals for basic needs, like hunger, thirst, or sleep. Driven as I’ve been for the last forty years, it took almost losing my life to passive suicidality before I learned how to listen to what stories my body was telling me. And the stories it wanted to tell through me. That’s my personal version of embodiment, and this shorter piece is another Ekphrastic poem I thought fits in with the theme of the body, based on the shape of the glass sculpture as an androgynous human.
I am
Fragile,
Delicate.
Don’t touch me
Or I will
CRACK
Beneath the weight
Of every onus
That divides us.Can’t you see?
I am holding
Who I want to be—
The light
The sacred
The eternal
Part of me.I stare.
She does, too.
We wait
For the instant
I become
The version of myself
That elevates,
Sparkles,
Soars.There is no hiding
Truth.
I am not hollow,
But exposed—
A transparent human
Made of
Fire,
Water,
And broken things, too.
I’m pleased to share with you a deep, meaningful conversation I had with
within the last couple of weeks. In this podcast, we explore some of the topics and feelings I bring up in my memoir: about ambivalent feelings related to becoming a mother, the associated grief with the loss of one’s former life and identity, and how tough it is to reconcile the weight of motherhood with reclaiming oneself after raising children.
Your financial contribution helps supplement our family’s expenses and offset the costs of ongoing medical care for our daughter Sarah that requires 20 hours of unpaid caregiving on my part. I want you to know how much your support means and how it helps our family.
I remember the season vividly when I learned to listen to my body and what it needed. I genuinely believe that we, as women, are powerful because we hold so much of the world inside us while trying to manage everything outside of us. Thank you for always being so vulnerable because it reminds me where and what I've walked and come through. I love you!
I love your poems. I love you and your family too. Give Sarah a big hug from my wife and me!