Dear friends,
Thank you so much for stepping into this little corner of the poetry world. :)
This month’s poem & accompanying pieces discuss how we can never “save” someone struggling—and how to approach supporting them while knowing this—while intentionally challenging the notion that “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.” I’ve frequently found this phrase inadequate & violent when struggling to help someone in need, and this poem further explores these thoughts.
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I hope you enjoy this month’s poem, recording, photos, and handwritten marginalia.
Take gentle, tender care & speak soon.
Gratefully,
Leading A Horse To Water
Please find an audio version of the poem below
I’ve heard someone saying, so many times, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink” when there is much more to saving someone, namely: can you? Do they trust you? Maybe they’ll sink beneath the lake, perhaps trip upon the pond, and what if they’re not thirsty for rivers? Did the world allow you safety toward a tender soft spot for the tide while they survived the same world by fearing oceans? You see, when you un-poem this poem, you’ll find a person who’s warmed up— backbones cracked & muscles stretched & joints lubricated— waiting to free float across the dark pond of a night sky so richly autographed with names it appears a pool of black ink & clay, wondering if this is what it will be like —suicide— gliding here, knowing they’ll never drown or fall because there is no water to contend with at all & no air, no earth, no blood but always the company of ancient light, gas, and dust. We can’t save anyone. Even equipped with polyvagal theory, we only lock people in poems, which isn’t saving, though linguistically, saving sounds so much like safety. Maybe, we can break other life forces from their canvas like New Year’s crackers & place these maps between someone’s body & ours & hug them as tightly as possible until the pressed words disappear into their chest or back into ours. But, by maps, I don’t just mean old English poetry & its dead poets. The watering hole won’t save us. The wishing well won’t save us. What I mean is the weeping of those who wrote to release our tears via theirs; tears that will show us that we do not need to be led to any water other than our own other than our home.
Behind The Scenes Kindling
Before You Go…
Here are a few life-giving poems from some brilliant poets:
Tariq Luthun’s poems—I literally couldn’t choose one!
My heart is happy when Safia Elhilo writes new poems! And more! Here!
UNHEARD EULOGY by May Ameri
HELP by Aprotim Cory Bhowmik
Acceptance Speech After Setting the World Record in Goosebumps by Andrea Gibson
The End of Poetry by Ada Limón
i have an irrational fear of spiders by Charlie Getter
You believed only a girl born of dandelion can be ferocious by Purvi Shah
Between midnight and eternity by Kettly Mars
Screenplay by Harryette Mullen
Solstice Re-pot by Shailja Patel
The neurologist gives us permission by Seema Reza
Greenness by Angelina Weld Grimké
Summer Haibun by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
+ A beautiful, needed read:
AND! Some fantastic poetry resources & reading from the one & only Ana Wang:
A Beginner’s Guide to Poetry + these gems…