Thank you for this gift Mindy. I’ve heard you read your incredibly personal and powerful poem aloud twice now. Each time it works on me, deep within my heart. 🩵
Thank you so much for taking us on that exquisite journey--and for tapping into the longing and the faith and the courage to make it in the first place. Such a gift.
Oh my god, Mindy. That was so beautiful in so many ways.
My mother had dementia and I realized at a certain point that I had to stop searching for the person I'd known her as and start welcoming the person she'd turned into.
I was with my father when he took his last breath, and I will never forget what a privilege it was to be with him as he left the world, just as he was there when I entered it. It's a sacred duty, guiding our parents in this way, and you've captured it perfectly. Thank you so much for sharing this.
As you know I bawled my eyes out listening to this back in November and I am very grateful to get the chance to read it again. Beautiful as I remembered and so heart strong 💗
Thank you for this gift Mindy. I’ve heard you read your incredibly personal and powerful poem aloud twice now. Each time it works on me, deep within my heart. 🩵
Thank you April ❤️🧡
So so beautiful. Just what I needed to watch this morning. (your video, I cried.) Love you. Thank you for your voice. Always.
Thank you friend 😭 happy holy days!
a solstice poem for all! (revisioning Persephone)
THE COMING OF WINTER
What if Persephone chose the underworld
As her only chance to run away from home?
After all, if your mother is a fertility queen
Who controls every living thing on earth
And she sets you up to be the perfect virgin—
Eternally teenage goddess of spring,
Doomed to a gossipy circle of boring nymphettes
And wimpy sorority dances in chiffon—
What the hell else can you possibly do but turn radical?
You go out walking, pissed. The other girls know
To leave you alone when you’re moody like this
And the sunny field of flowers and hummingbirds
Is enough to make you sick.
Up drives this dude
In a wicked helmet and a black convertible:
Nothing like the creep you’ve been warned about.
He bows, grins, asks if you'd consider
Sharing his job: ruling the worlds of the dead.
“It’s subtle,” he says. “Challenging.
You'd be great,” he says.
“At least come down and look around,” he says.
“They’ll never understand our type up here.”
Your mother throws a fit when she finds out.
She hollers rape, tears up the kitchen, calls
A planetary strike by every species
Of tree, vegetable, shrub, grass, and fruit
But it doesn’t work. Stoned on your own courage
Inside your lover’s cave, you drink the darkness,
Stroke a kitten’s ghost, and pity her.
Finally she sends some mediator guy
(cute wings, curls, and not afraid of snakes)
Who conjures arguments till you consent
To visit mom, live half the year above ground.
The planet shifts. He flies back with the tale
Of marriage vows and pomegranate seeds
To give you six months' peace.
And just like that
The creatures, plants, and weather goddesses
Start following your rhythm: hollowing
A time for souls to rest between fiestas.
Your mother, her aching breasts swollen with summer,
Sniffs that it’s all unnecessary grief
But you and the wizening spirits know better.
Even humans learn to shut up long enough
To notice dreams and little mysteries,
And folks seem happier that way. Your partner
Hades, proud of you and sweetly off-key,
Roams the caverns humming “You’re not a kid anymore.”
From then on, you and mom get equal billing.
The heavens shift.
You start designing snow.
Joanna Cazden © 1989
Published in Sage Woman magazine, Santa Cruz CA, Winter 1991
Revised 2019
I love it 😍 all hail Persephone, being at home in the underworld, and defining yourself on your own terms
Thank you so much for taking us on that exquisite journey--and for tapping into the longing and the faith and the courage to make it in the first place. Such a gift.
Thank you Tamara 🩷❤️
What a gift to receive this poem Mindy - thank you! And Solstice blessings to you! I hope you have some space for deep rest.
Yes! Solstice blessings to you too! Wishing you a lot of ease and warmth as you follow the sun ☀️
Oh my god, Mindy. That was so beautiful in so many ways.
My mother had dementia and I realized at a certain point that I had to stop searching for the person I'd known her as and start welcoming the person she'd turned into.
I was with my father when he took his last breath, and I will never forget what a privilege it was to be with him as he left the world, just as he was there when I entered it. It's a sacred duty, guiding our parents in this way, and you've captured it perfectly. Thank you so much for sharing this.
I resonate with all of this Valarie - it is a sacred duty, and a privilege not everyone wants or gets, to see them go before us 🩷
on mindy 💖 thank you
Thank you Holly 🩷🧡
lol, something ate h's ascender 🤣
Such a beautiful poem. You are a word magician!
Thank you 🥰
Thank you for this poem, for its catharsis and courage 🖤
As you know I bawled my eyes out listening to this back in November and I am very grateful to get the chance to read it again. Beautiful as I remembered and so heart strong 💗
So very Beautiful....
I cried too. Thanks Mindy 🤍