What if this time I stayed by Pam Lozoff

What if I didn’t have to lift off 
to try and compensate 
for the time I spent in the subterranean
nor to explain or make excuses for when 
I disappear or fade into the background.
What if I didn’t have to grow larger than life 
to make sure that I’m visible, that I matter.

What if I just stay here for a while
Here
in body in mind in tact
with my rhythms.

Not leaving 
not absconding or disappearing 
not charging up and out
just here–
in connection
in intimacy 
in love.

When I feel out of touch or 
like I’m beginning to lose the thread, 
I remember to stay.
I call upon the human and plant allies 
who remind me to stay planted 
because they too are in this remembering
they too are learning how to stay 
Here.

And when we begin to leave 
into the scrolling, the smoking, 
the drinking, the numbing 
the “other, we place a hand on the others’ 
shoulder and beckon them back inward
closer toward ourselves.

Pam is a Jewish, Queer woman who lives with Bipolar II. She has journeyed through her inner landscapes via movement/embodiment practices, writing, and therapy (as both client and practitioner). Throughout and following copious unsatisfactory and harmful experiences within the mental health and medical model, she continued to turn to the page. Writing has always been one of her embodiment practices– a place where body and mind could find a more harmonious rhythm.  Her intention is for her works to reach people from this place of inhabiting the body to invite them into a space of belonging within them selves (especially those of marginalized identities) and to their place here in this world, especially the natural world. Learn more about Pam and reach out at: http://www.embodiedwaywithpam.com | IG: @embodiedway_Pam

Photo by Dingzeyu Li on Unsplash

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