I sat inspired by the millions of us who turned out to vote in our presidential election. I, like many, struggled to find the right words to describe the moment. It was on the new day of November 5th that this poem flowed from my soul:

Just for one day

A poem to honor the election of president-elect Barack Obama

Just for one day, let  me breath in the hope that this moment holds, let me feel the evolution in a country’s soul.

Tomorrow will dawn with a blaring white light, showing all the problems that led to this one historic night…

Those are the beginning lines of the poem. You can hear the complete poem below. I hope it helps you reconnect with your unique and special moments during this historic election.

When the hope starts to fade in the days to come. When the challenges begin. When you need to reconnect, I invite you to come back and listen to this poem again and again.

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Inspiration: I was sitting around one day and this thought came to mind:

Memories that need a voice

Are of the most patient kind

They rest in the corners of the heart

And worm their way into the mind…

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Inspiration: I was thinking back to one of the first poems I ever wrote. I was in the first grade. It was a poem for Mother’s Day. It went: With a smile so bright and eyes so blue, Mother I love you. The whole class had to write the same poem. My mother’s eyes are brown. My teacher said it didn’t matter. It mattered to me. 

With a smile so bright

And eyes so blue

Mother I love you.

But my mother’s eyes are not blue…

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Inspiration: Long before I knew of my Native American heritage, I was interested in Native American traditions. Many traditions recognize four levels of energy and information that make up human life. There is the realm of the body–serpent. There is the realm of the mind–jaguar. There is the realm of the soul–hummingbird. There is the realm of the spirit–eagle. I wondered what we would hear if we could listen at all of these levels. This is what I learned:

Listening deep to the flow of the undertow

I hear so many things people don’t want me to know

Oh, I’m afraid

Oh, I’m alone

No, I can’t do this on my own…

 

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Inspiration: I was reading a book one day with the television in the background. I heard something like “watch the wind see where it goes…” and I put down my book. Words flowed through me like a stream:

He is a WindWatcher

He is a moment catcher

He is a present snatcher

A true soul hatcher…

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Inspiration: I was sitting beside a fireplace resting. I looked into the fire and let my mind wander. The Untitled One is one for whom there is no title in this world. The words came:

Light dark shadow angels

Now flutter, fall glide 

Lightly heavy on the watery air

Between, before, the worlds…

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Inspiration: Gore Island was inspired by a picture of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, that appeared in the Washington Post many years ago. It showed them standing in–the door of no return–on Gore Island. It was at a fort where captured slaves were kept until they were loaded on ships to the Americas.

I say the picture and feelings, sights and sounds filled my mind and body. My DNA vibrated with a special kind of chill. I tried to give it voice. I know 60 percent of my DNA comes from ancestors who were slaves, 20 percent from Europeans and 20 percent from Native Americans. This poem honors my African Ancestors.

I invited their spirits to tell their story and this is what they said:

Stripped from the bosom

Which held, where planted

Which nurtured, where grew

Stolen in the darkness

When no one knew

Until the break of dawn on a new day…

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Inspiration: Just walking down the street on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, I looked up and saw two hawks circling in the sky. A vision formed in my inner eye and I watched it like I was watching a short youtube video.

The narrator in my head said: 

High in the sky

Just above the river

Two eagles circle in a dance over the water…

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This was a few years before walking on Capitol Hill changed, in some ways, forever.

Inspiration: I was a part of a hospice team for a family member living final days with dignity. When we face loss the question of what life is all about floods our minds and emotions for days at a time. On one of those days, my soul broke open and I thought:

Life is in the intangibles

Not the hard and fast

Not in what we can have and hold

But in what will definitely pass

It’s in the glance that brings a smile

connecting without words…

I was filled with unspeakable feelings but this was as close as I could come to describe them.

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Inspiration: My best friend was finally getting married. I was preparing to be asked to be his best man when he and his fiance surprised me and asked me to officiate their wedding. They were designing their wedding to include friends and family. We launched on a year long set of talks about what their service should mean. 
We came up with the term spiritual partnership.

One day I was meditating on what that should mean, and these words began:

Are you willing to share all of my smiles and cries

Or will you only take the smiles

And with the cries close your ears and hide your eyes…

That was four years ago. The poem made it into the service and triggered many hopes and memories among the guests. We were all honored to witness their love.

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