Ancient
               gnarly
                            filled with seasons

my stories and experiences 
                                            infuse me
                                                     travel with me
                                                                       make me who I am...

All things I see, touch, do and feel
                                                        come through me and are transmuted

gnarly old me
and all the things I've witnessed

I know that I'm 
old as rain
and
fresh as morning dew
just part of something
going along

letting go with easeful acceptance
inhaling what changes the seasons bring

connected,
yet self-contained

aware of the value of the precious glimmers
brought about by togetherness

ok in my solitude
seeing the same stardust in you 
as I know is in me

see

breathe

sleep

my business is to simply be

allowing my experiences to wash over me like the light of dawn
gently, transiently

holding on with intentional love
to the aspects that nourish me


releasing with gratitude
the aspects that teach me

celebrating my ancestry,
descendant that I am
of the women they didn't burn

solid, 
yet flexible
and permeable

open to the return to myself
of the love that I have released to the universe

Copyright 2021

“Old as rain and fresh as morning dew” is from fierce Australian feminist poet, playwright, and novelist Dorothy Hewett and is part of one of the poems in her play The Chapel Perilous

I honour her.