Poetry 10-16-25

Posted on by sereichert

I don’t have much to say about this one. Today we’ll be in the hospital. Next week, a new world. In a month? Who knows. Every season feels like fall these day, minus the comfort of repose.

Confetti

Fall afternoon
where asphalt splits
the glory of some
reticent nature apart and the 
contrived quaintness of our street
twenty years-lived 
sits picturesque and soft

our voices are silent and 
our thoughts are loud 
and we are so alone,
next to one another
each a leaf fallen
even as the confetti of mountain ash
dances down like glitter
the aftermath some big show 
we've just missed
the end of a celebration
we held no part in

Tomorrow we run more tests,
tomorrow they measure you again
to see the 
failure to thrive
and the insistence of dying thin
rather than living 
with anything over your bones
but shivering skin

and the dark bark of trees
reaches up to claw the blue skies
and I hear 
you giggling from your stroller
at the leaves of confetti 
just somewhere down our street

it echoes, this joy
even as you stare sullen
beside me, alone

Poetry 2/1/2024

Posted on by sereichert 

Obstinate

My mind is obstinate today
though the sun is well past up
and the traffic is growling 
on soft streets
like wild animals rejecting suburbia

my lights have gone out 
and I'm wrapped in gray
struggling through the muck
of a thousand demands, 
mostly self imposed
to keep me from slitting my wrists

I am obstinate today
walled up against progress and productivity
I scarcely believe there is blood 
in my veins to let out
not in the tub
not on the page

I am obstinately hollow
and feeling undeserving of the titles
"woman" and "mother"
aren't these strong, unshakeable elementals?
I am not either today

I'm simply
obstinate

NANOWRIMO Week Four: The Final Countdown

Posted on by sereichert

Good morning!

For those of you who’ve been following me through the month of November, this marks the final installment of surviving NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month). I’ve been flowing with a life-stages theme, and had intended to title this week “Retirement” but the thing with NANO is that only some of us will spend the last week resting and reaping the rewards of a month packed with hours of dedication to your project. A lot of us will find this final week to be the last, desperate attempt to finish.

So this brief post is for those who are struggling through the last four to five days to make up those words, or at least push to do what they can.

I hope, more than anything, and even above the lofty goal of 50,000 words, that you are still trying. That you haven’t given up. That you have built a habit of writing so that you don’t feel complete in your day unless you’ve spent at least some time on your work.

Because, that’s the whole point. This month is more about teaching us to prioritize our lives to include our writing first (or at least at the top of the to-do list) and to know that we CAN accomplish great things when we give it the time and love it needs. It’s more about building the habit of writing than it is about reaching the specific goal.

So often in our lives we self-limit. So often we are told it can’t be done, we can’t, the work is too great, the effort pointless. So often we are told that struggle won’t be worth the outcome. But those voices and those opinions fail to factor in that it is not just the outcome that is rewarding. The end result is not all we are working for. Its the journey in getting there.

When we challenge ourselves, the bigger reward lies in the struggle. New ventures, hard and thankless work, and lofty goals teach us how to plan, how to plot, how to push ahead when we simply don’t feel like it or when others around us question or scoff at the ideas before us. Challenges shine a light on how amazing and resilient we are so that, no matter the outcome, we learn what we are capable of. And once we know what we are capable of, the bonds of doubt weaken and we begin to believe that if we can write a novel in a month, we can edit it, publish it, write another, and another, and another. And if we can write a book we can take a class, or teach a class. We can climb a mountain, we can travel across the world. We can do anything we set our minds to.

We can.

You can.

You’ve only got a few days left in this month and I BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN do anything you’ve set out to do. You are amazing. You are imperfectly perfect and there’s no one in the world who can finish this month the way you will.

Deep breath, writer. Don’t let the home stretch scare you. Let the struggle instead be your gift and one which you are grateful to work through. You can. You will.