I love how chance (or perhaps it is fate) brings us exactly what we need exactly when we need it. This is how I came upon the heart-rendering poetry of Wendy E. Slater, in her latest release, Into the Hearth. “Heart-rendering” is exactly what happens when one feeds upon the words out of which I imagine Wendy’s own heart was reborn and made whole. At least that was my experience when feasting upon her words. Part confession, part soul-retrieval, one is laid bare through the gentle nuances of Wendy’s willingness to be naked, vulnerable and uncompromisingly honest about the midlife journey of “Everywoman” – born out of the pain of loss and out of the labor of the Soul’s excavation, exhuming the corpses of what has been to discover what will be. Thank you Wendy for baring your own Soul so that other women, like you, might be free in the true liberation that midlife brings.
1429
I get it. Totally.
In entirety
Like the full moon beaming
From my head,
I have failed as
A non-smoking, yoga, retreatee,
Vegetarian diet
With practicality
Crippling colored waters
Of herbs
That do me no good.
I know I belong with a beer,
An occasional smoke,
Freedom to choose
Who I love and what I love
When for me, I love
To leave and will in 5 days,
First class if I have to
As a celebration of my
Success of knowing
Where I belong and who I am.
1431
If I dove up and
Through the arched and veined
Dome of ivy trellised
Over the crown
Would I reach through to you
And would I find
Myself at home
In the stars, of the ocean
And in the forest
Of love
Clasped as 2 hands
In a voyage
Of the unknown
And trust in the
Celebration of
Surrendering all the feminine
Into your masculine
Dowry of treasures unfolding
As sacred nectar
Cultivates and ripens
To flower in the always,
Wisdom to be
Held
As we disrobe
Into nothingness?
Poems copyright 2015 Wendy E. Slater. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Wendy E. Slater lives in Vermont. After a 20 year hiatus from writing poetry, 20 volumes of spiritual poetry were written starting during a trip to Scotland in 2001. You can learn more about Wendy, her poetry and services at www.traduka.com.
