Letter To My Body

Note: All poems are personal but this one I find to be especially vulnerable for me because of the nature of stigmatization about this subject. I decided to post this because I figured if I feel vulnerable about talking about my relationship to my body, I’m sure I’m not the only one – and then we definitely should be talking more about this as a collective. From what I’ve seen, destigmatization is a key factor for creating a more positive and open awareness on subjects that need attention. 

Letter To My Body

My body
my mind
Two things I’ve thought were not intertwined
The sadness I’ve felt when I thought of their correlation
At one point in time was of great sadness to me
Facing this truth
Was too hard a burden to bear
So I rejected it from my thoughts
I ignored my body’s cries for help
And suppressed this pain

But what happens, I should know
When a cut goes unchecked
It can blister and bubble, cry out
Louder and louder to the point
Where it is no longer possible for me to ignore it.

So this is my letter to you
My love, my physicality, my body

I love you
I love you
I. Love. You.
I will say that a million times till it is true
Down to every cell in my body
Till it runs a flame through my veins

Now I have ignored you
I have suppressed your cries for help
The pains the pimples the bloating and everything else
I’ve thought starving you would help
Maybe if there was less of me I’d be less cumbersome
I’d fit snugly into the mold every girl wants to become
And since I wasn’t Barbie
I thought hating myself into submission
might cure these broken parts of me

But I just poured salt into a wound
And this saddness stung worse

You body
Are my temple, my shrine, the holy house of my soul
I am blessed to be a part of the god that created you

Why should any thought have the right
To tear down the genius of the mind that created you

I am you
You are me
So here and now this is my decree
Of honor of pride, a cry from the depths of love in my mind
To listen
To care
To never shame the truth that is there
Beneath my skin

I am my skin
I am my bones
My breath
My eyes
My beating heart

I hear the love that pumps blood through my veins bringing life
To the depths of my body
This flesh and bone creates life
This arrangement of atoms is beautiful
Not because it fits any expectation
But because it is alive
It is flowing the light of creation through this soul
My soul
My body
My mind
My blood
My heart
My limbs
My lungs
You are me. I love you.
Darling body, darling soul, darling mind
Don’t let me forget
This love
Is divine.

 

Photo: This photo was taken in the backyard of my family friends home in Vermont. They have a great field with lots of wildflowers there, I was just lucky enough to get this Black Swallowtail Butterfly sipping clover.