I am a former teacher and current Reiki practitioner living in Lyme, NH. At the beginning and closing of each of my sessions, I read poetry aloud- many poems by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and James Crews plus a multitude of others. Wild Geese by Mar Oliver is one of my favorites. Hold Out Your Hand is one of my favorites of yours.
I don't remember when or where I first found some of your poems, but they spoke to me immediately. I began sharing your words with some of my Reiki clients. When I read one of your poems to a certain client/friend named Zoe, she practically rose up off my massage table. "This poem was written by my friend, my college roommate, oh my god I can't believe this!"
And so, the chain of connection grows. Small world indeed. I love love love your writing Julia- thank you for sharing your gift!
Oh my gosh. Stephanie. I just jumped out of my chair after reading your words, tears in my eyes, and ran to my 19 year old daughter to read her your words. This is just amazing. And so, so cool. Zoe and I were very, very good college buddies (I love her). And how I love this story. Ripples. How very beautiful. Thank you for sharing this with me, it truly made my day. And thank you for scattering my poetry around, how deeply I appreciate it.
I love seeing you here Julia! Your beautiful book, Staying in Love, lives on my bedside table. It is a soothing, loving balm in my life (as you are.) Small Kindnesses by Danusha Lameris is one of my favourites too🙏💖
Beautiful Gaye, I so love imagining my book of poetry on your bedside table - that just makes me smile and warms my heart right up. "Small Kindnesses" is definitely one of my top favorites too. And Danusha is just an incredible human. I am bowing my love to you, dear Gaye. Thank you for being one of my dear people. xo
Thank you so much, Robin. I'm going to have to go look that poem up - I'm not sure if I've read it, but I love just about everything Mary Oliver (as do most of us who love poetry). Thank you for being here.
The two anthologies I reach for over and over again are How to Love the World Again, and Poetry of Presence (which is how I first became introduced to your work!).
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to tell you my absolute favorite poem of yours (to date, at least) is The Most Important Thing. I wept through it, and still do. It beautifully sums up the journey of coming home to myself, which is one I’ve actively and intentionally been on these last several years. You are a gift and a kindred. So, so much love you, dear Julia 💕
(((Sara))) - this is me giving you a big, big hug. Thank you. Thank you. It means so much to me to know that "The Most Important Thing" touched you. How beautiful. I so appreciate you. And yes, very much kindreds. xo
Love that you are on Substack! If you need any how to or technical help please ask. One of my favorite poems is “The Invitation” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. I also love your poems!
Karen - hello! What a kind, generous offer (that I really might take you up on!). Learning new technical stuff is always a big challenge for me, so this is especially appreciated. I too love "The invitation" and I love that you love my poems. I'm so happy that you are here. xo
I have had the benefit of asking many other writers here on Substack over the last four years and it's just so helpful to have someone to ask! Anytime.
How wonderful that you're now on Substack, Julia! I'm grateful for all that you offer the world ❤️ A poem that I love is Antidotes to the Fear of Death by Rebecca Elson.
Sundari - how beautiful to find you here! I am deeply grateful that our paths have crossed. I will have to look up that poem, thank you for sharing. Big love to you, amazing woman. xo
Delighted to see you on Substack, Julia. I hope you'll like here. It's not perfect (what is?) but it sure feels like it's mostly good, which is great! 😅
I tend to not have favorites, rather writers to whom I am drawn for different reasons at different times. You are one of those. Also: Hollie McNish, Jarod Anderson, Maya Angelou, Wendell Berry.
Hello Elizabeth! So far Substack feels really great. I still have a whole lot to learn. Mostly, I'm just doing a lot of flailing around over here....ones step at a time, right? Thanks so much for being here. xo
Hello Celeste! So fun to find you here. "Journey" is one of my all time favorites too - such a powerful poem (as are most of Mary Oliver's poems). So much love to you. xo
Thank you, Julia, for this infusion with poetry. I read all the comments. I love your heart! You are one of my favorites! I leave here a wonderful poem by Mario Benedetti:
Loving seeing you here. Other than your poetry, I'd offer And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou, which I watched her perform again (video) and it is one of my favourites. I'm also going to offer old school, and reach back into my education and offer Ozymandius by PB Shelley, and Meditation 17 by John Donne, as well as A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.
Candice! "Still I Rise" is so deeply powerful - I love that one too (and Maya). I love that you went old school too. :) Thank you for being here, my friend. xo
As for poems/collections, these two poems were on my mind today ~ "Transcendental Etude" by Adrienne Rich and the last stanza of "Anna Liffey" by Eavan Boland (excerpted below):
Love, love, love that you are on Substack dear Julia! Favourite book, poem? Oh well I credit you first since it was your book, "On the Other Side of Fear" that served as a catalyst for me. Other favourites are Rumi ("The Sun Never Says") and Kahlil Gibran ("Fear" and "Forget not that the earth...")
Moria! Hello. It's such a treat to find you here. I love that my first book served as a catalyst for you....I didn't know that! So cool and special. Big love to beautiful you. xo
can't choose only one--two of my current favorite poetry collections: All the Honey by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Feed Your Vow by Brooke McNamara. if i get to own yours, maybe it will join the list! :) thank you, Katy
Wishing you well in your next ventures Julia!
I am a former teacher and current Reiki practitioner living in Lyme, NH. At the beginning and closing of each of my sessions, I read poetry aloud- many poems by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and James Crews plus a multitude of others. Wild Geese by Mar Oliver is one of my favorites. Hold Out Your Hand is one of my favorites of yours.
I don't remember when or where I first found some of your poems, but they spoke to me immediately. I began sharing your words with some of my Reiki clients. When I read one of your poems to a certain client/friend named Zoe, she practically rose up off my massage table. "This poem was written by my friend, my college roommate, oh my god I can't believe this!"
And so, the chain of connection grows. Small world indeed. I love love love your writing Julia- thank you for sharing your gift!
Oh my gosh. Stephanie. I just jumped out of my chair after reading your words, tears in my eyes, and ran to my 19 year old daughter to read her your words. This is just amazing. And so, so cool. Zoe and I were very, very good college buddies (I love her). And how I love this story. Ripples. How very beautiful. Thank you for sharing this with me, it truly made my day. And thank you for scattering my poetry around, how deeply I appreciate it.
I love seeing you here Julia! Your beautiful book, Staying in Love, lives on my bedside table. It is a soothing, loving balm in my life (as you are.) Small Kindnesses by Danusha Lameris is one of my favourites too🙏💖
Beautiful Gaye, I so love imagining my book of poetry on your bedside table - that just makes me smile and warms my heart right up. "Small Kindnesses" is definitely one of my top favorites too. And Danusha is just an incredible human. I am bowing my love to you, dear Gaye. Thank you for being one of my dear people. xo
Congratulations, Julia! My favorite poem is “The Hermit Crab” by Mary Oliver. 💕
Thank you so much, Robin. I'm going to have to go look that poem up - I'm not sure if I've read it, but I love just about everything Mary Oliver (as do most of us who love poetry). Thank you for being here.
The two anthologies I reach for over and over again are How to Love the World Again, and Poetry of Presence (which is how I first became introduced to your work!).
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to tell you my absolute favorite poem of yours (to date, at least) is The Most Important Thing. I wept through it, and still do. It beautifully sums up the journey of coming home to myself, which is one I’ve actively and intentionally been on these last several years. You are a gift and a kindred. So, so much love you, dear Julia 💕
(((Sara))) - this is me giving you a big, big hug. Thank you. Thank you. It means so much to me to know that "The Most Important Thing" touched you. How beautiful. I so appreciate you. And yes, very much kindreds. xo
Love that you are on Substack! If you need any how to or technical help please ask. One of my favorite poems is “The Invitation” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. I also love your poems!
Karen - hello! What a kind, generous offer (that I really might take you up on!). Learning new technical stuff is always a big challenge for me, so this is especially appreciated. I too love "The invitation" and I love that you love my poems. I'm so happy that you are here. xo
I have had the benefit of asking many other writers here on Substack over the last four years and it's just so helpful to have someone to ask! Anytime.
How wonderful that you're now on Substack, Julia! I'm grateful for all that you offer the world ❤️ A poem that I love is Antidotes to the Fear of Death by Rebecca Elson.
Sundari - how beautiful to find you here! I am deeply grateful that our paths have crossed. I will have to look up that poem, thank you for sharing. Big love to you, amazing woman. xo
Delighted to see you on Substack, Julia. I hope you'll like here. It's not perfect (what is?) but it sure feels like it's mostly good, which is great! 😅
I tend to not have favorites, rather writers to whom I am drawn for different reasons at different times. You are one of those. Also: Hollie McNish, Jarod Anderson, Maya Angelou, Wendell Berry.
Hello Elizabeth! So far Substack feels really great. I still have a whole lot to learn. Mostly, I'm just doing a lot of flailing around over here....ones step at a time, right? Thanks so much for being here. xo
Congratulations, Julia, on your new book and venturing onto Substack! ❤️ I was introduced to Mary Oliver just when I needed her with “Journey.”
Hello Celeste! So fun to find you here. "Journey" is one of my all time favorites too - such a powerful poem (as are most of Mary Oliver's poems). So much love to you. xo
Thank you, Julia, for this infusion with poetry. I read all the comments. I love your heart! You are one of my favorites! I leave here a wonderful poem by Mario Benedetti:
Defend joy as a trench
defend it from scandal and routine
from misery and miserable
from temporary absences
and from definitive ones.
Defend joy as a principle
defend it from wonder and nightmares
from neutrals and neutrons
from sweet infamies
and serious diagnoses
Defend joy as a flag
defend it from ray and melancholy
from neives and rogues
from rhetoric and cardiac attacs
from endemics and academics
Defend joy as a destination
defend it from fire and firefighters
from suicidal and homicidal
from vacations and burden
from the obligation of being happy.
Defend joy as a certainty
defend it from oxide and dirt
from the famous brushwork of time
from dew and opportunism
from pimps of laughter
Defend joy as a Right
defend it from God and winter
from capital letters and death
from surnames and sorrows
from chance
and from joy itself.
Thanks so much, Andreea. And what beautiful words. I'm so glad you are here.
thank you Julia - I know you are asking about poems/books of others - but let's also go with one of my favourite of yours...
hard to pick a favourite - but I come back to "To the hurting ones" often.
And for others - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's "Life Goes On"
Outside the kitchen door,
your large green crocs sit, empty.
I slip my feet into them
and shuffle around the porch.
Life went on, I say to the air, to you.
I scuffle past the cinquefoil
with its plentiful yellow blooms,
shamble past the small and robust lilac bush
friends gave us after you died.
Look at all this life, I say to you,
to the air. It’s in everything.
It’s in me, too, this burgeoning.
And then I’m crying with the all of it—
the fierce sun and the blur of hummingbirds
and the ache in my chest and
the green in the field and
the terrible, wondrous truth—
Life goes on. For a long time,
I shuffle and talk to the air.
As always, your silence speaks back.
I listen to it beneath the rush
of the river, hear it beneath the birds,
sense it beneath the shush
of the wind in the grass.
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Emma - hello! I'm so glad you shared that "To the Hurting Ones" is one your favorites. Thank you. And yes, Rosemerry - she's incredible. xo
morning in a new land
In trees still drpping night some nameless birds
Woke, shook out their arrowy wings , and sang,
Slowly, like finches sifting through a dream.
The pink sun fell, like glass, into the fields.
Two chestnuts, and a dapple gray,
Their shoulders wet with light, their dark hair streaming,
Climbed the hill. The last mist fell away,
And under the trees, beyond time's brittle drift,
I stood like Adam in his lonely garden
On that first morning, shaken out of sleep,
rubbing his eyes, listening, parting the leaves,
Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift.
mary oliver.
Hello Anna! Thank you so much for sharing these Mary Oliver words...she will always be one of my very favorite poets.
Loving seeing you here. Other than your poetry, I'd offer And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou, which I watched her perform again (video) and it is one of my favourites. I'm also going to offer old school, and reach back into my education and offer Ozymandius by PB Shelley, and Meditation 17 by John Donne, as well as A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.
Candice! "Still I Rise" is so deeply powerful - I love that one too (and Maya). I love that you went old school too. :) Thank you for being here, my friend. xo
So glad you are on Substack!
As for poems/collections, these two poems were on my mind today ~ "Transcendental Etude" by Adrienne Rich and the last stanza of "Anna Liffey" by Eavan Boland (excerpted below):
In the end
It will not matter
That I was a woman. I am sure of it.
The body is a source. Nothing more.
There is a time for it. There is a certainty
About the way it seeks its own dissolution.
Consider rivers.
They are always en route to
Their own nothingness. From the first moment
They are going home. And so
When language cannot do it for us,
Cannot make us know love will not diminish us,
There are these phrases
Of the ocean
To console us.
Particular and unafraid of their completion.
In the end
Everything that burdened and distinguished me
Will be lost in this:
I was a voice.
Danna, how lovely to find you here. And what a thought-provoking excerpt. Thank you so much for sharing it. Tons of love to you.
Love, love, love that you are on Substack dear Julia! Favourite book, poem? Oh well I credit you first since it was your book, "On the Other Side of Fear" that served as a catalyst for me. Other favourites are Rumi ("The Sun Never Says") and Kahlil Gibran ("Fear" and "Forget not that the earth...")
Moria! Hello. It's such a treat to find you here. I love that my first book served as a catalyst for you....I didn't know that! So cool and special. Big love to beautiful you. xo
congratulations!
can't choose only one--two of my current favorite poetry collections: All the Honey by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Feed Your Vow by Brooke McNamara. if i get to own yours, maybe it will join the list! :) thank you, Katy
Hi Katy! Rosemerry is one of my all time favorites too. I love her (her poetry and her as a human). Thanks so much for being here. xo
Of course, you are one of my favorites Julia. I also enjoy Mary Oliver and John O 'Donohue.
Inge, this means so much. And what a fun surprise to find you here! Sending tons of love your way.