Poetry – Red Tent Living

Inside Out

By: redtentwomen August 9, 2022July 17, 2022

Day to Day, Femininity, Monthly ThemesEmbodiment, Grief, Healing from trauma, Integration, Maggie Hemphill, physical pain, Poetry1 Comment

It’s a blurry line really, A delicate balancing act: Holding you, holding me. I’ve ignored you And denied you. Pretended you were someone else.

Long Way Home

By: redtentwomen November 16, 2021November 10, 2021

Monthly Themes, relationships, The HomeGrief, Home, Hope, longing for a mother, Melanye Wrighton, needing a mother, Poetry4 Comments

T’is a mother in my life who feels all alone waiting for something completely unknown

I Am From

By: redtentwomen October 25, 2021October 4, 2021

Art, Femininity, Monthly ThemesFinding Yourself, Holly Lowmiller, Knowing Myself, Poetry, self discovery, self-awareness1 Comment

I am from my own imagination From ground scorched with misdirected rage I am from forced silence From underwater screams stuck burning my throat I am from her dark hallow From a lifetime of aching belly I am from both body and mind filled with too many scoops of Mama I am from familial pain…

Personified

By: redtentwomen September 21, 2021September 13, 2021

Art, Monthly ThemesPoetry, spoken word, Vanessa Sadler, Wisdom6 Comments

She speaks with tempered wit and out drips tender care from lips that brim with wonder and awe. She walks in patience like the dawn, neither fast nor slow. A rising glow that with time shows all things Both true and clear. She beholds what no one knows, A thought too bold to keep untold,…

Find Your Zen Again

By: redtentwomen December 7, 2020December 5, 2020

Day to Day, Faith, Monthly Themes, Warrior, WholeheartedAbuse, America, black america, Natasha Stevens, national healing, Poetry, Race, race reconciliation, Racism, systemic racism, white america3 Comments

The truth is like a lion: let it loose and it will defend itself. —Saint Augustine Autumn leaves crunch under my feet like a forbidden Kit Kat bar. And yet I keep walking—far away from the noise of the day. I don’t want to hear. I don’t want to feel. I want to heal. Scars on…

Sheltered in Place

By: redtentwomen May 26, 2020June 3, 2020

LiteratureCOVID-19, Heather Medley, Poetry2 Comments

I am numb, mindlessly scrolling. Familiar businesses post new guidelines for safety. The words “contactless” and “social distancing” impact me. I am surprised by an ache and try to make space for her.

broken is not Broken

By: redtentwomen May 18, 2020May 17, 2020

Day to Day, Faith, LiteratureAnne Pharr, Breakable, Competent and Capable, Poetry3 Comments

“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars . . . .”– 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT) Why do I try so hard to be Intact— to hold together these shards even as I watch fragments fall through my fingers, sharp edges stinging my thin skin,…

The Gray Whale

By: redtentwomen May 8, 2020August 6, 2020

LiteratureLiz Nelson, Poetry3 Comments

The massive gray whale lingered In a moment of suspended animation as She is ascending from the ocean floor up To exchange a drag of air The vast navy blue depths hold her Weightlessly Effortlessly

The Swimmer

By: redtentwomen May 5, 2020May 4, 2020

Day to Day, Faith, Literature, UncategorizedBarbara Beecham, Joy, Peace, Poetry, Sadness9 Comments

Sadness swims inside of me. Doing the backstroke across my heart. Flipping and repeating, gracefully kicking backwards as it observes where it has been.