We did it! We are always talking about writing together and we finally did! Below is a poem that my cousin, Cozett Dunn (soon to be published) and I collaborated on. It was so much fun writing with her and her brilliance challenged me to go deeper, to pull the story straight from my soul! We will definitely do this again! If you’d like to read more of her writing, check out her blog at http://www.cozettdunn.com. Hope you enjoy …

Divergence: Part 1

I open the well and dip my quill
Each scratchy stroke on the parchment,
a step along my path

Naive navigation of the terrain ahead
I prime my heart for my fears to shed

With growth as my goal
I’m not sure what to extol

So childishly I tread,
Running, skipping, leaping ahead

Trusting that the next step will catch me
It is only when I fall that I know the truth …

The truth is that in the falling there is an emergence
A clear confrontation of choiceless divergence

My head swims with courage bigger than me
My stomach churns with lifetimes of inappropriate duty

I should. I must. But it feels so unjust.
It’s right, I’m told. I just need to be bold.

I take a step onto the path
I chose the one that I should have

Should have, would have, could have
For these pressures there is one salve

That healing balm an eternal calm
I sing out an autonomy psalm

Free me from duty! Let me roam free
This is your path, it is not for me!

I turn the page.

The blackness of the ink settles into my scars
Through tears, I tell my story to the stars

But it was hers not mine
I had no intention of building an eternal shrine
Weeping mother wound to the constellations I crooned
Becoming a woman my childhood was pruned

Do as I say and not as I do
Tell me who could integrate that? Who?

I turn away and run hard and fast
My feet burning as the jagged rocks pierce my skin

Each step is my own, each choice another try
To forge my own path, to not write another line that isn’t my own, and yet, here we are again

Was irony supposed to be a part of the lesson?
This prismatic labyrinth buffets my progression

Choice after choice line after line
Each chapter my own to define

Maybe love will be my guide!
My pulse quickens as I hasten my stride
Into the arms of the one in my dreams
He is perfect, or so it seems

This box checked and that one too
Could this relationship be a healing brew?

I laud his kindness and his sheer humanity
And of course he does appeal to my vanity

Could he be my needed polarity
Yes he is the one to bring me clarity

I feel the subtle prickling in my heart
Little words, gestures, small things really
It’s probably nothing, I tell myself
You’re just being silly.

But the voices grow louder
Impossible to ignore
He’s not the same person
He was before

And I am alone

My soul is in pieces strewn across the pages
As if they no longer belong to me
I am coming undone
Word by word

And somehow I know within the depth of me
I’ll reintegrate these pieces beautifully
Tattered pages will be alchemized
The herald of my triumph wasn’t surmised

My sharded soul will become an impressive mosaic
The guarantee of my happiness written since times archaic

I’m ready to move forward and to turn this page

Older. Wiser. An expert in learning from my mistakes.
My hair is gray, my body feeble. I’ve transfigured my heartaches.

I close my eyes and I am no more
But yet I know
As I am known

The book opens before me, a clean page
What will you write, asked the mage
Who appeared in the ether

There are lessons still to learn
My soul, ever seeking
To go deeper

And I begin to write

#poetry #lessonsfromtherearview #collaborate #writing #writer #journal