128. It’s Poetry Time <3

We’re back with another poetry hour <3 

Poems read in order: 

Phone call by Tony Hoagland 

She Let Go by Safire rose 

Come To Me Now by Maclolm Guite 

The Quivering by Heidi Rose Robbins  

Whenever I feel Helpless by John Roedel 

Won’t You Celebrate With Me by Lucillee Cliffton 

The Visitation by Maclolm Guite 

A Blessing with roots by Jan Richardson 

Boundless Love by John Prine

Arrival by Sophie Strand 

Join us for our next monthly community care circle Sunday June 28th at 5:00pm PST. This is a space to come together to be in community, get centered, prime the creative pumps and have some room to just be as you are. Mark your calendar! 

The zoom link will be accessible through our substack  https://littlegifts.substack.com 

*** Join Perdita Finn for a free online event on Thursday, June 25 ***

What Is the Long Story of Your Soul?:

Remember Your Gifts & Passions Across Lifetimes to Awaken the Intelligence of Who You’ve Always Been

… and explore what becomes possible when you view your life through a much wider lens. 

Sign up here https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/syysSW/a28052/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and leave us some stars over on Spotify. You can email us at littlegiftspodcast@gmail.com or find us on isntagram @littlegiftspodcast. 

Find Sue Ellens artwork at www.sueellenparkinson.com or connect with her on instagram @sue.ellen.parkinson. And the same goes for Savanna! Find more about her practice at www.savannawonderwheel.com or connect on instagram @savannabeing. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

We can be so lost and then just some little thing shifts. It's like the stick in the stream that's holding all this debris back and then all of a sudden it goes boink and leaves and everything's flowing again. Welcome to the Little Gifts Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

This is Sue Ellen Parkinson. And I'm her granddaughter, Savannah Wonderwheel. And we're on a journey together to find deeper meaning and magic in the day-to-day. We're so happy to have you join us.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Morning, Savannah. Just a little good morning grunt to start off.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

This is we're doing this very early.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

We're doing this very early. We both have got our bedhead still.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Mm-hmm. And and Savannah's training to expand her mind. So we have to do these things early now. At least this weekend. I'm glad you're doing all the things you're doing, by the way. It's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I know. I just am compelled. It's really good. I'm I'm doing a biodynamic massage workshop and I'm redoing the intro level workshop. And it's been really great. You know, I've I've been studying in this modality for about five and a half years now. And this is my first time circling back around to the beginning class. And, you know, I had no idea who was going to be signed up, but there's two women in it who I've been in a bunch of other trainings with. So it's like one of the things I love most about this work and being in these workshops is that like there's all different skill levels of practitioners that cycle back through and back around. And I think that's always the sign of a really good teacher when there's people who come back to do the previous things again. And it's been really helpful to come back to like the basics and back to the beginning. And you know, you can get kind of lost in the sauce of stuff sometimes, but to be like, oh, right, this is this is what the point is, or this is what the non-point is.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, sometimes it takes you a while to understand the depth of something.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

And it's always nice to come back to something. I like many people will get the imposter syndrome feeling around things that I'm doing. And so to circle back to something and come back to it with the lens of a beginner and and be like, oh, I actually do actually do a little bit know what I'm doing. What a crazy thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

You know, I was thinking this weekend, I was thinking all these things that you're always doing, you're really putting yourself through your own university.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

You're just doing it by choice, and you do it here and you do it there, and and pick and choose very specifically what you want to spend your time doing. So it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Thanks. And thanks for working with me in the schedule and meeting with me early. We're doing it. I'm proud of us. Woo-hoo! But because we're meeting early and because I didn't have much space to think about a ton of stuff before, and because of a lovely new listener that I got to meet, we're gonna be doing another little poetry hour. It was really sweet. I I had a woman come in for a bodywork session, and she was like, Oh, you know, I hope this doesn't seem like weird that I found you this way, but I love the podcast. I'm a huge fan. Just started listening kind of recently, and I've I've been needing to get some body work, and I heard you mention you do it, and we're in the same town, so I figured why not do it? And I was just like, oh my god, it's so sweet. So I freaking love that somebody came in that way. So, also if you're in Portland and listening and need a massage therapist, my name is Savannah, and I am an actively working massage therapist, so come see me. And you might come and tell me that one of your favorite episodes was about something, and then we'll do it again. So she said that she just loved our poetry episodes, and then this week came and I was busy and I was like, what are we gonna talk about? And I was like, let's do a poetry episode again.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

So I could kick us off if you want.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

I love it for you to kick us off.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Well, you know, Father's Day is coming up, and my friend Kayleen asked me to read a poem on one of her programs about Father's Day, and the only one poem about fathers that popped into my head was phone call by Tony Hoagland. And it's not it's not one of these happy father poems, so much happy with the relationship you had, kind of thing. So much. I I really loved my own dad, but he was it we did have challenges for sure. Anyway, so here it is phone call by Tony Hoagland. Maybe I overdid it when I called my father an enemy of humanity. That might have been a little strongly put, a slight exaggeration, an immoderate description of the person who at the moment, 2,000 miles away, holding the telephone receiver six inches from his ear, must have regretted paying for my therapy. What I meant was that my father was an enemy of my humanity. And what I meant behind that was that my father was split into two people, one of them living deep inside of me, like a bad king or an incurable disease, blighting my crops, striking down my herds, poisoning my wells. The other standing in another time zone in a kitchen in Wyoming with bad knees and white hair sprouting from his ears. I don't want to scream forever. I don't want to live without proportion, like some kind of infection from the past. So I have to remember the second father, the one whose TV dinner is getting cold while he holds the phone in his hand and stares blankly out the window. Where just now the sun is going down and the last fingertips of sunlight are withdrawing from the hills they once touched like a child. Yeah. I love Tony. I actually wrote him a letter once and he wrote back to me.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Oh, yeah, yeah, that is a relatable one.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

And the truth is that, you know, I was thinking about my own dad. When my dad had me, he was so young and clueless. I mean, that's the thing. Yeah. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh, geez. Yeah. Especially in our situation. I mean, you know, you need to raise children in a with the with the grandparents around who are treated with respect. And, you know, the aunties and uncles, and everybody's got to be on board, not just a couple of bumbling 20-year-olds. Anyway. Oh gosh. Yeah, it's my Father's Day poem, but love to all you dads out there. I have to say, I think the new dads, they're giving me hope. They really are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Well, I have one. I feel like it maybe goes along the lines with what you just did a little bit. Just considering the the comments in that poem of like accepting what is and letting go of what has been. And as someone who has things that she could let go of, this poem really resonates with me. So this is called She Let Go by Sapphire Rose. She let go. She let go without a thought or a word. She let go. She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the right reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go. She didn't ask anyone for advice. She didn't read a book on how to let go. She didn't search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all the memories that held her back. She let go of all the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right. She didn't promise a let go. She didn't journal about it. She didn't write the projected date in her daytime or planner. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn't check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go. She didn't analyze whether she should let go. She didn't call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn't do a five-step spiritual mind treatment. She didn't call the prayer line. She didn't utter one word. She just let go. No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort, there was no struggle. It wasn't good and it wasn't bad. It was what it was. And it is just that. In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Oh, I love that. Sometimes the tether just snaps, doesn't it? And that poem kind of speaks to one of those moments. Yeah, I really like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

As someone who can spend forever doing all the things that were listed in this, I loved it. I think the line when they say when she says she didn't journal about it or do a five-step spiritual treatment or, you know, checkers horoscope.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yeah, it's so interesting. We can be so lost. And then I don't know, just some little thing shifts. It's like the another one of those examples of the stick in the stream that's holding all this debris back, and then all of a sudden it goes blink and leaves, and everything's flowing again. That's wonderful. Yeah, poetry, you know, gives our lives meaning to me, or it helps me see the meaning somehow. So important. Yeah. What do you got? Okay, so I found this new poet. He just came across my, I don't know, my feed, and I don't know how, but I'm grateful that he did. His name's Malcolm Guite. Have you ever heard of him?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

No.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Okay, well, this is kind of Christian stuff. So hold on to your seat there. Oh my god. Don't go wild. Don't go wild. I I have a couple of his poems. He's but you know, it's like that place where all spirituality meets. And um it's like he really, I feel has the essence, is expressing the essence. I think he's a I think he might be a priest. I think he is a priest.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Wow, you're really rocking my boat here, bringing in a poem about a dad, and then a poem by a priest. All right.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

But Keith, this guy, this guy's a trip. You can you can Google him. My uh Malcolm Geit, and it's G-U-I-T-E. Anyway, so here's a poem. Okay. I cannot think unless I have been thought, nor can I speak unless I have been spoken. I cannot teach except as I am taught, or break the bread except as I am broken. O mind behind the mind through which I seek, O light within the light by which I see, O word beneath the words with which I speak, O founding unfound wisdom finding me. O sounding song whose depth is sounding me, O memory of time reminding me, my ground of being always grounding me, my maker's bounding line defining me. Come hidden wisdom, come with all you bring, come to me now, disguised as everything.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Oh, that's really great. Isn't he great? I like that. I mean, I don't know if I can say that he's great, but I that poem was great.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Yeah, yeah. And I have another one here, but I'll let let you all ventilate all this a little bit by letting you read a poem. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, I loved that. That was really, really good.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

I mean, I feel like he's on to the essence of of things that heals my heart anyway.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Yeah. This is The Quivering by Heidi Rose Robbins. If we but make friends with the quivering, the subtle and not so subtle shaking of the body and all its parts, letting go of what we've held on to long enough, if we but soften our grasp on who we have always been, to make room for what can be, knowing not what may appear, knowing only the quivering. And I ask, is not some part of us always dying? And I ask, are we not every day in some small way reborn? Then, just as the wild animal shakes off the fear of attack, we too can shake off the fears of what want to eat us whole. We can walk barefoot in the woods with a quiver of arrows, cautious of what still wants to ensnare us, but alive with the light emanating from our newly trodden path. Are we not pathmakers? So we are. Are we not pathfinders? So we are. Do arrows not quiver before they are loosened into the world? Then so must then so must we. Finally, we are the archer and arrow all at once, sprung into the wind, carried swiftly, silently, precisely, to our very own heart, pierced and present.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Oh, I love that. And I have a good poem to follow. It wasn't the poem I thought I was gonna follow, but uh this one really kind of goes with that one in a way. It's um Whenever I feel helpless by John Rodell. Whenever I feel helpless in this overwhelming world, I become a helper. Oh my love. On the days when it feels like I have no power, I serve others. You see, whenever I wash the world's feet, my hands immediately stop shaking. Well, that's so good. Yeah, it's a good thing to remember, and it's so true. It's really true. Be the helper, be the helper, you know. If you're feeling if you don't know what else to do, be the helper. Don't cause trouble.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

I think sometimes when we don't know what to do or we're just feeling lost, we cause more trouble. It's one thing I've learned in my life. At least stay still. Uh-huh. At least don't have a big conversation.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

This is called Won't You Celebrate Me by Lucille Clifton. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Won't you celebrate with me what I have shaped into a kind of life? I had no model, born in Babylon, both non-white and woman. What did I see to be except myself? I made it up here on this bridge between Starshine and Clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand. Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Yeah. Louise Clifton. She wrote kind of short poems. I think she was a single mother. And she had these little periods of time when she could write. So she wrote, but she was really, really good.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I'm always kind of amazed by people who can write short poems that are that, you know, get to the heart of it in that short amount of time. I feel like that's anytime I try to do any writing, I I'm a long-winded one. So it's like reading people who can do things in these short, bite-sized ways. I'm always very impressed by.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Oh. Well, I like that it makes me want to write more short poems. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Cause for me, I'll start writing and then it just like goes and goes and goes, and then I'll be like, I mean, I think that's not to say that's a bad thing, but I think there's something very potent to someone who can just condense what it is they're getting at and just put it forth and have it just be that.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I always think I gotta write more, but maybe that's not true. Yeah. Just go with those little things, those little insights that come to you. Well, I got I got another one here by Malcolm Guite. Okay. This one's even more Christian-y. It's called The Visitation, and what it's describing is this um in the Bible, there's this story about Mary, you know, Mother Mary, not Mary Magdalene, but the Mother Mary, when she's young and she's just become pregnant, and she visits her, I think it's her aunt, it's an older relative. And Elizabeth is, you know, got gray hair and whatnot. And she's she never thought she would have a child, but here she is pregnant, also being blessed by an angel in her older age. And so Mary goes to visit her. But what I think of when I think about this poem is the amazing relationship between a younger woman and an older woman, could be you and me even. But but any, you know, like I have that with Meredith and I I have it with a bunch of younger women where there's something that's shared that's a little different. Because, you know, you're you're both recognizing the gifts of of each other's age, you know. Yeah. And and it really feeds you in a deep, deep way. So so that's what I think this is about. Or it's this that's what it is for me, anyway. The visit. Oh, oh, another little piece you should know about this is that it's describing a part in the story where Mary comes to visit Elizabeth when she's first pregnant, and Elizabeth comes and greets her and says, As soon as I saw you, the baby in my womb leapt for joy. And and her so it's left the leapt leaping for joy thing, which is yeah, kind of awesome. Another little detail is her baby is John the Baptist.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

All right.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Now you got the full background here.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

For anybody who might not know. So funny, I'm so like removed from so much of the contextual parts of Christianity. We're like, yeah, John the Baptist. It's like, I know that's a name. I have no idea who that dude is.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Well, he was he was a revolutionary and he baptized people in the in the river, and he had his head cut off. So there you go. And he baptized Jesus too. So here you go. Okay. Here is a meeting made of hidden joys, of lightnings cloistered in a narrow place, from quiet hearts, the sudden flame of praise, and in the womb the quickening kick of grace. Two women on the very edge of things, unnoticed and unknown to men of power, but in their flesh the hidden spirit sings, and in their lives the buds of blessing flower. And Mary stands with all we call too young. Elizabeth with all called past their prime. They sing today for all the great unsung, women who turned eternity to time, favorite of heaven, outcast on the earth, prophets who bring the best in us to birth. That's good. I don't know. That's really good. I'm really liking him. I mean, you can Google it. He's got a bunch of like stuff on YouTube. I I just think he's pretty he looks like reminds me of a little hobbit. Malcolm Kite. A hobbit with a uh, what do you call it? A turned around collar. A little thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Oh my gosh. Okay, well, this is a blessing with roots by Jan Richardson. Tug at this blessing, and you will find it is a thing with roots. This is a blessing that has gone deep into good soil, into the sacred dark, into the luminous hidden. It has been months since the ground gathered the seed of this blessing into itself, years since the earth enfolded it. Sometimes that's how long a blessing takes. And the fact that this blessing should finally show us its fruits on the day you happened by. Well, perhaps we shall simply call the timing of this ripening a mystery and a sweet grace. Take all you want of this blessing, take every morsel that you need for the path ahead. Let its fruits fall into your hands, gather them into the basket of your arms. Let this blessing be one place where you are willing to receive in unmeasured portions, to lay aside for a moment the way you. Ration your delights. Let yourself accept its inexplicable plentitude. Allow it to give itself to sustain you, not simply for yourself, though on this bright day I might be persuaded to think that would be enough. But that you may gather its seeds into yourself like the ground where this blessing began, and wait with the patience of seasons and of years to bear forth in the fullness of time a stunning harvest, a plenteous feast.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Oh, that's beautiful. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yep, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Well, I don't really have another poem. I have a song by John Prine. I don't know if you know John Prine. Do you know who he is? I know the name. Yeah. Okay. Well, um, he's he died uh during COVID, I think. But anyway, he's just kind of this country guy. So I get this song came up on my playlist, and I heard it not as a romantic song, but as a song about community and how how our little you know village of people, what do you call your your group? Your uh my family. Your family, but but yeah, it's something else. It's your when you cluster and hug. What is that? A group hug? No, no, you have a little name for it. Cuddle puddle, your cuddle puddle. Oh it's like that kind of thing. So anyway, it this is called Boundless Love by John Prime. Okay. Woke up this morning to a garbage truck. Looks like this horseshoe's done run out of luck. If I come home, would you let me in? Prime me some pork chops and forgive my sin. Surround me with your boundless love, confound me with your boundless love. I was drowning in a sea, lost as I could be, when you found me with your boundless love. Sometimes my old heart is like a washing machine. It bounces around till my soul comes clean. And when I'm clean and hung out to dry, I'm gonna make you laugh until you cry. Surround me with your boundless love, confound me with your boundless love. I was drowning in a sea, lost as I could be, when you found me with your boundless love. If by chance I should find myself at risk of falling from this jagged cliff, I look below and I look above. I'm surrounded by your boundless love. Oh, that's so good. It's just a sweet, and I I heard it like, oh, this is my community, my world, and it's true. I'm surrounded by boundless love. So what about you? What about me? Are we are we at a wrap?

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Are we time for little gifts? Just as a little teaser here to end, I think we should read a little Sophie Strand because we get to have her on next week. We're gonna have Sophie Strand on next week.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I know it's exciting. We've been wanting this for so long, and now we're gonna get it.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Okay, so this is Arrival by Sophie Strand. Light branches nerve-like through the high, clean sky. Two crows toss themselves like so much sand from an open hand into the windswept river. Somewhere in the glittering belt of Cayuga soil that below our feet mirrors the Milky Way, a seed gets hungry for air. Today is the beginning of hard work. There is rock to puncture, water to suck from the cracked skin of quartz. In a matter of days, the ice will relax and fracture the sidewalk. Where will I break to grow? Where, as the earth slackens, will I raise my new green hand?

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Oh, she's so good.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yeah, so we're really excited. We get to have Sophie Strand on this week, and I'm sure it's gonna be an amazing conversation, and you just get that to look forward to, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Yeah, I'm just reading her book, The Body is a Doorway, and I'm so much to relate to. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

And I'll also throw out here so Sophie, if you don't know, is Perdita Finn's daughter, our beloved Perdita Finn. And um, she's gonna be on the Shift Network doing an event soon, and we'll put the link to that event and a little sign-up link in the show notes here. So if you want more Perdita, you can find her through there. And if you sign up through our link, we get a little something for that. So if that's something you're interested in, give it a go that way.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

And just trust us, you can never get enough Perdita. Yeah, she's so good. Gotta have that Perdita in your life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

And the last little shout out I'll give here is that in a couple weeks we have our little gifts community care circles. Mark your calendar for Sunday, June 28th, 5 p.m. Pacific time. We'll get together and we'll share what's on our hearts and we'll do some light movement and we'll do something creative and it'll be a really sweet time as it always is. That'll be Sunday, June 28th, and we're gonna do five o'clock again, see how it goes, at least through the summer while it's still light out at five.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Yeah, that sounds really good.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

So, Savannah, do you have a little gift? Yeah, I mean, my gift right now is just getting to do and receive all this amazing body work, and it's been really fun. I'm got to bring my partner Winnie just graduated massage school, and so he's doing the course with me. And so it's been really fun to get to show him a little bit more of my world and the thing that really lights me up in this work, and it's just been really fun getting to have a little buddy to drive to class with every day. It's it's fun getting to do stuff with someone.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Oh, sweet! Yeah, it is. That's awesome. I'm glad you guys have so much in common. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

It's been fun, it's been good. My body feels so supported and nourished, and yeah, it's good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Well, um, my little gift, what came to mind is my friend Carlin, who I saw recently. And Carlin was like uh extremely talented astrologer. She was really into astrology, and she was really into Tarot and a lot of things, but she very, very wise woman, still is. She's about, I think she's 87 now. And she was saying the other day, she said that she doesn't use astrology anymore or any of the things she used to use. She just goes outside and she looks at the stars. Oh they talk to her. She's transcended into this direct, the direct connection, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

The direct relationship.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Yeah, and um, she's just such a beauty and so precious.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

That's so sweet. I love that. That's a great story.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah, so Carlin, and I'd also like to acknowledge my friend Nancy Horwicks. I just went to her um memorial service yesterday, and she was another amazing woman and part of my poetry group.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Well, love to Nancy, love to Carlin and love to Hillary, our little gifter who came and gave us the inspiration to read poems today.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Yeah. Thanks, Hilary. All right. We love you, little gifters, and oh, Savannah, I love you.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Oh, I love you too. And we love you, little gifters. Back next week. If you're a lover of the Little Gifts podcast, please share that love with the world. Leave us a review or give us some stars wherever you listen to your podcast. And while you're at it, you could send this episode to someone in your life that you know could use some TLC. Word of mouth recommendations are the best marketing a podcast could ask for, and every recommendation means the world to us. To keep in touch, you can find us on Substack or Instagram at LittleGifts Podcast, and we host a monthly community care circle on the last Sunday of every month that can be found through our Substack. You can also send us an email at LittleGiftspodcast at gmail.com, and as always, all of this info and more can be found in the show notes. And we want to give a special thanks to Robin O'Brien for gifting us your music to use for this show. Thanks for being on this journey with us.