I first read Meckel’s poem in Rattle years ago and hung on to it. I even created an altered book using these words. Here it is for you, paired with art from one of my favorite digital artists:
A poem by Lisa Meckel
All night I’ve remained awake
thinking how to reinvent myself;
struggled with the wild possibilities
and the desperate impossibilities,
considered how to create this happening.
Perhaps:
a reinvention center for overripe women,
a spa designed for reclaiming the brain
a salon for the soul
a machine to re-mind us who we longed to become
a clinic to re-vision the inner eye
workshops for re-assembling the split heart
a voyage of discovery to stimulate the inner voyeur
a retreat to repair, reorganize and replace genetic makeup
Which leads me to consider
who invented me in the first place?
who filled my DNA with my own me-ness?
Thus to make myself over again
must I act like a deity once removed?
Or could this notion of re-invention
be really a process of removal,
scraping off the wretched scum
we let lay on us, on our very self?
If so, then
I must go out into the rain
let those sweet drops wash off
fear of failure from my skin
let the wind blow hope back into my thoughts
believe once again in the ultimate mystery of the moon
let the bread be the truth of my table and let the salt sing
of the beauty of daily-ness
allow the sunrise to begin the day
know that sunset is inevitable
that the cold night can be warmed by the inner fire
know again that the river is never the same river, ever.
—from Rattle #19, Summer 2003, Tribute to the Twenty-Minute Poem
Lisa Meckel has been published in Edison Review, Nimrod International Journal, Rattle, Briar Cliff Review, Mirboo North Times, Victoria Australia,Midwest Quarterly, The Paragon Journal and many more. She is a three-time winner of the Poetry Prize at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and was a presenter for The Big Read honoring Robinson Jeffers, Carmel, California.
Art is by Catrin Welz-Stein, a German Artist who creates digital Artwork. Follow her on Facebook
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist.
Learn more about her award winning novel, In the Context of Love.
Learn more about her picture book, Gordy and the Ghost Crab.
Learn more about her poetry chapbook, Security
Thank you for visiting Linda’s blog.