Tempest: A Woven Poem

Our woven poem “Tempest” was collectively written by students of The Bridge, Winter 2021.

We call our Narrative Medicine study group “The Bridge” — not just because of the relationships it builds between medicine and the humanities, but also because of the relationships it builds between everyone who attends. Some of our best friends, confidantes, and chosen-family members have come from these classes, and we are forever grateful for the incredible group of humans who just crossed The Bridge with us yet again.

To celebrate our journey together, we created a “woven poem” inspired by our close reading of Kae Tempest’s incendiary play Wasted. Each of us wrote three lines, then we “wove” these lines together to create our own collective poem. We’ve named this poem “Tempest” in honor of Kae, but also in honor of this particularly tempestuous time in our personal and global histories, and the people who have helped us weather the storm.

Tempest

I’ve never felt as Asian as I do right now

Is this really our tribe? Could there more than one?

I wish I could cross back

I feel them everyday, my children’s children

We took our ocean and turned it into ink

At a time when the world seems so aware and caring and coming together in support of

Feeling included, feeling loved, feeling to be of substance

Will I be free?

Brimming with ideas, energy, anger, and dreams

In the spaces between us, I found myself

So are we in support of? Or are we with?

Showing up to the moment

I want to know more — not for me, but for everyone

I hope it works out for them

We all walk each other home

This place may not belong to us no more, but we still belong together

To think we thought we were lost souls forever

when we give up on the disguise

Now I have a tribe

We know that ain’t going to change, for sure

But your tribe never leaves you to rot and decay in the gutter on your own

And release the grip from the outside

I realize it does not fill my longing

We’ve been alone, we won’t repeat, not ever

Our hearts are back beating to the rhythm, we are whole again

We find our tribe that has always existed, buried deep inside

Its only from inside I can connect with my belonging

Heart hugs stretching our spirits in our presence

You, feeling the same way, reached out in your grief

Who is the audience now, and who is the chorus?

Riding waves of doubt and surging with longing

Mask dropped, then, I dropped mine

Side by side, together

What could be here?

And we were both seen

The storm is coming, and we are ready