Some people excel at creating community and supporting other writers, and Michael Simms is one of them. I love his online zine, VOX POPULI, that features poems, essays, short films, short fiction and more–from hard-hitting to open-hearted content. And today he is featuring one of my poems from my new collection, The Unfolding–which officially came out today, October 1st!
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Acceptance
Today grief is a long steady rain
and the thing to do is to walk
in the long and steady of it.
The thing is to let the face
get wet, let the clothes get wet,
let the hair get wet and plastered
against the cheeks, the neck.
The thing is to meet the soaking world
and the soaking skin and the soaking
shoes and the soaking dreams
and not pretend it’s dry.
Whatever longing there is for dryness,
it is soaking too. Because it’s raining,
the thing to do is to walk in the long
and steady rain, to walk in the sodden,
soaking world, to trust that it will
not rain forever, to breathe in the scent
of the wet, wet earth, to kiss the rain,
to be kissed by the rain.
To be wet in the wet, wet world.