~Fred Rogers
I'd like to thank Heidi Mordhorst for sharing her Things I Wish You Knew poem with us today.
Not for Kids
This poem is not for kids
it’s about how the bees sting you
from the inside
it’s about what’s under the bed
invisible almighty
that they are afraid of
this poem is all shiny
on the outside and rotten
on the inside
oops worm bit off your head
now you can’t think your way
out of the apple
it’s not for kids at all
kids don’t know about pain:
scraped knee, loose tooth,
broken arm, black eye
these are sticks and stones
mere sticks and stones
kids don’t know that words
can always hurt you
isn’t it amazing how the
high-functioning trunk
grows right around
the wire that garottes it
this poem is not for kids
it’s this little light of mine
frantic incandescent
long-lasting flavor of
gingerbread abandonment
the way you can’t get angry
because nothing is wrong
Heidi Mordhorst
*************
Heidi hadn't picked a resource link to share but she had picked a topic: Somatic Experiencing. Psychology Today has an explanation of SE.
Addendum: Heidi said in the comments that "It's helpful, in terms of "things I wish you knew," to distinguish between Trauma with a capital T and trauma with a small t, which is what this poem is about.
I like the focus of this article for that reason, and because it emphasizes the many bodily pathways to processing old, "ingrown" stress responses.
Maybe in the current contagion this understanding about small persistent traumas is especially important."
3 comments:
But for parents and teachers, all adults who use the words they also grew up with, never mind that it isn't truth. I'm wishing it weren't so, but am imagining this shows the way kids do grow and learn too well. Heartbreaking to read, Heidi, but well told.
Thanks for posting my poem, Tabatha. It's helpful, in terms of "things I wish you knew," to distinguish between Trauma with a capital T and trauma with a small t, which is what this poem is about.
I like the focus of this article for that reason,and because it emphasizes the many bodily pathways to processing old, "ingrown" stress responses.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093/full
Maybe in the current contagion this understanding about small persistent traumas is especially important.
I'm so glad to get another opportunity to read this, which I somehow missed the first time. So powerful.
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