May 6, 2015
Congratulations to Morgana Morgaine, our Whidbey Writes featured writer for May. We’re pleased to be able to share her work of poetry with you. Whidbey Writes is a collaboration between the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts (NILA) and Whidbey Life Magazine (WLM). Its purpose is to give WLM readers an opportunity to enjoy short fiction and poetry by writers who have a connection to Whidbey Island.
We look forward to publishing the original work of selected winners at the beginning of each month as part of Whidbey Writes. NILA and WLM congratulates Morgana and thank volunteer editors Heather Anderson, Mureall Hebert and Chris Spencer who review submissions on solstices and equinoxes and pass on the work they enjoy most to Whidbey Life Magazine for publication online and in print.
The next submission deadline is June 21. To find out more about Whidbey Writes and the submission criteria, visit the NILA website. To make a submission, use this page.
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There is a Softness in the World that I am Seeking
By Morgana Morgaine
There is a softness in the world that I am seeking,
Being weary of hardened faces and harsh tones, my own and that of others.
I no longer seek to “earn” anything, trust, friendship, gentleness, a place at the table.
I no longer seek to explain myself or ask the same of you.
I am simply seeking a softness in the world, a gentleness of spirit, my own and yours.
I am weary of stories about how I got to be the way I am or you got to be the way you are; all a fiction anyway.
What I am eager to experience is soft eyes looking through me and into me;
Occasional adoration, even, like we most often reserve for young babes and lovers.
A carefulness not to wound would also sit well with me.
I am increasingly weary of my intellect and yours.
I am much more curious about the intelligence of your heart and mine.
Intelligence of the heart comes in a variety of costumes, I find.
A Sufi engages an audience of strangers with an offer to listen.
“Tell me of your sadness,” he says—and then pauses.
Tears well up; a great hunger ripples through the group.
The Grail King languishes in a barren land in a barren castle.
Dry, brittle, hardened by inertia.
Parsifal, Knight of the Round, arrives.
Approaching the king, he leans in, whispering in his ear:
“Tell me… what ails thee?”
The king stirs, comes alive. The lands green. All is restored.
Priestess costumed as cleric motions to an unhappy child, pats the seat next to her in invitation:
“Come, sit here, and tell me what hurts. I have all afternoon.”
There is a softness in the world that I am seeking.
I can barely breathe sometimes for the want of it.
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Morgana Morgaine, writer, humorist, and eclectic mystic. Author of: “Borderless Broads, New Adventures for the Midlife Woman”. Morgana calls Whidbey Island and Santa Fe, NM home. Poem inspired by encounters with a Sufi, an Activist, and a Mystic. www.MorganaMorgaine.com
Photo is courtesy of the writer.
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