To Be Real
On being emotionally real, sometimes I feel ghostly
I settled
warmly in my nook
lifted by such a longing
my heart shook
and from that little earthquake
this plea emerged:
Make me real
oh spirit of the heart
Make me real
Make me real.
The spirit replied
WORK!
Cinderella wasn’t a princess until she was
WORK! Think, toil, muscle, knot, write, untie.
Get awkward and experience pain
Do not give them an excuse
to pass their love by you
Work diligently, work sincerely, work often
work well
work ethically
how else do you build
your substance, your gravity
your reputation
be marble not vibration
carve yourself a life
dear one.
I am an America born in Ukraine. This poem emerged from listening to a podcast on parenting, Andrew Huberman’s podcast about the importance of believing our children’s experiences and tuning into them. He also talked about the fact that working is connected to feeling real. Sometimes I feel cloudy and substance-less, as if I don’t belong anywhere. Sometimes I believe I don’t work enough, or as hard as I should, so this poem/inner dialogue with parts of myself served the purpose of helping me gain insight into myself.
