Poetry – Red Tent Living

Permissions of Breath

By: redtentwomen January 21, 2020January 22, 2020

Day to Day, LiteratureEducation about Sex Trafficking, Poetry, Scarlet Road, Sexual Abuse Survivor, survivor, Victoria Ahlfors2 Comments

What happens to the heart when the walls come closing in? When the thunder makes one hide amidst the shadows? Just breathe. Give yourself permission to just…simply…breathe.

Dreams Don’t Die with Motherhood

By: redtentwomen January 9, 2020January 8, 2020

Day to Day, FemininityDreaming, Kelsi Folsom, Motherhood, Poetry, Transitions, Writing10 Comments

A little notebook sits on the back, left corner of a small, brown table in the tiny kitchen of my cottage on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Saba. No matter how many times I spray and wipe down the wooden surface, a thin film of “too many chaotic dinners” remains. I reach for this journal,…

Thin Space

By: redtentwomen January 7, 2020January 6, 2020

Day to Day, FaithAnnelise Roberts, Poetry, Recovery, Therapy10 Comments

Sometimes, it seems like a dream – a bad dream, catalogued in three years of notes in my therapist’s office – but a dream nonetheless. Other times I wake up, my brain dull and fuzzy.

It’s You I Like

By: redtentwomen January 3, 2020January 1, 2020

Day to Day, FemininityJaime Roop, Poetry3 Comments

I am not a good person I am a person Just a person Ah, peace It feels true and Free Of working hard at what made me ME People seemed to like a sweet me The image stuck Forgive me for how I have perpetuated it No one is good except God alone “You are…

I Was Born Aboard the Titanic

By: redtentwomen November 29, 2019November 26, 2019

Day to Day, Faith, Literatureabandonment, Barbara Beecham, Childhood Trauma, Poetry4 Comments

I was born aboard the Titanic many years ago. The ship that “even God himself cannot sink” according to its builders. What Man has pieced together, let nothing put it under – the cold North Seas.

I Am My Own

By: redtentwomen November 22, 2019November 21, 2019

UncategorizedFemininity, Holly Lowmiller, Poetry, Recovery from Abuse, Redemption5 Comments

“I am not chewed up, spat out bubblegum” I am not fine china chipped by his touch now sitting on the thrift store shelf. I am not a porcelain tea cup filled with saliva from mouths of boys for whom I willingly opened my legs. I am not plucked petals of a rose trampled by…

My Dad Is Peter Pan

By: redtentwomen November 8, 2019November 7, 2019

Day to Day, Monthly Themes, relationshipsPoetry5 Comments

Playing life is not fun With a shadow for a father. The only time I see the real form Is when he weeps Or verbally punches me Or rages And sometimes when he is having non-manipulating fun.

Individuation

By: redtentwomen October 31, 2019October 23, 2019

Day to Day, Monthly ThemesHolly Lowmiller, Poetry, Recovery from Abuse7 Comments

I keep returning to the girl in the grave. Gray and without breath. With armor to protect her heart and masks to wear for any occasion. She knows the intrinsic ways of each role she is expected to play. I resurrect her when I fear love. She knows how to get through this life.

Yes

By: redtentwomen October 24, 2019October 22, 2019

Day to DayPoetry, Roby Taw9 Comments

Yes. I regretted saying it. But I said it with my whole heart being attached to it and my soul knows. I can’t back out. Yes. Some Preacher suggested that loving Christ meant being so ready to love him, follow him, we would say Yes before even knowing the question. I was compelled. I said…

Discovery

By: redtentwomen October 23, 2019October 22, 2019

UncategorizedPhoebe Glover, Poetry, Raising Kids, Single Mom5 Comments

I will not make my children be second-hand owners of their spiritual lives Itching and squirming in it-fitting hand-me-down values, Tripping over hems left long to conceal all things and restrict the feet from wandering, Suffocating under high collars drawn up to keep the throat and it’s expressions muffled in subservience masquerading as respect.