Poems from GPS training 01/22

Poems and other resources shared in the Group Peer Support (GPS) training hosted by Perinatal Support Washington, Jan 12-14, 2022.

by Danielle Doby
from "I Am Her Tribe"

stop.
stand here.
and breathe in
all that makes you grateful for this life.

a good laugh.
a good cry.
when both are fused together
at the same time.

soul connections.
choosing someone with your whole heart.
the ease exhaled after the release.

tuck these close
into the corners of your pockets.

the deep crevices of yoru spine.

so you may always
stand tall in the belief
that no matter what you are given
magic is always present within you
in what's here
and what's right now.

Image description: photo of an outstretched hand, palm up with a white feather floating a little above it

Image credit: Javardh via Unsplash

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SHELTER IN PLACE
​by Kim Stafford

Image description: an outdoor photo of a stream of water flowing between rocks covered in green moss

Image credit: nousnou iwasaki via Unslpash

Long before the pandemic, the trees
knew how to guard one place with
roots and shade. Moss found
how to hug a stone for life.
Every stream works out how
to move in place, staying home
even as it flows generously
outward, sending bounty far.
Now is our time to practice -
singing from balconies, sending
words of comfort by any courier,
kindling our lonesome generosity
to shine in all directions like stars.

---

SMART COOKIE
​by Richard Schiffman

The fortune that you seek is in another cookie,
was my fortune. So I'll be equally frank - the wisdom
that you covet is in another poem. The life that you desire 
is in a different universe. The cookie you are craving
is in another jar. The jar is buried somewhere in Tennessee.
Don't even think of searching for it. If you found that jar, 
everything would go kerflooey for a thousand miles around.
It is the jar of your fate in an alternate reality. Don't even
think of living that life. Don't even think of eating that cookie.
Be a smart cookie - eat what's on your plate, not in some jar
in Tennessee. That's my wisdom for today, though I know
it's not what you were looking for.

Image Description: white background with crumbled and broken bits of a fortune cookie, a small part of the fortune inside is visible, a white slip of paper with red writing

Image credit: Charles Deluvio via Unsplash

---

by Toko-pa Turner
​from "Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home"

Image description: photo of graffiti street art of an anatomical heart painted red and teal with black decorative lines all over. It has a gold border with the word LOVE at the top and the word RESPECT at the bottom.

Image credit: Jon Tyson via Unsplash

For the rebels and the misfits, the black sheep and the outsiders. For the refugees, the orphans, the scapegoats, and the weirdos. For the uprooted, the abandoned, the shunned and invisible ones.

May you recognize with increasing vividness that you know what you know.

May you give up your allegiances to self-doubt, meekness, and hesitation.

May you be willing to be unlikeable, and in the process be utterly loved.

May you be impervious to the wrongful projections of others, and may you deliver your disagreements with precision and grace.

May you see, with the consummate clarity of nature moving through you, that your voice is not only necessary, but desperately needed to sing us out of this muddle.

May you feel shored up, supported, entwined, and reassured as you offer yourself and your gifts to the world.

May you know for certain that even as you stand by yourself, you are not alone.