1 April 2020 |NPM Poetry Webslam

 CONTINUUM OF EACH OTHER                                                                   
  by Portia Choi
  
 I thought that thunder and lightning were powerful,
 heralding the wind of hurricane,
 uprooting palm trees, felling homes.
  
 Yet there is power in the breeze 
 that sway leaves to loosen from the branch-point
 where new life will bud in the spring,
 and give shade in the summer.
  
 There is power in the lulling waves that 
 smooth a jagged glass to a radiant crystal, 
 or a trickling stream that creates a canyon.
  
 And there is power in words,
 nourishing a famished heart to love, to forgive, and have faith.
 Words repeated -- the mantra of fulfillment.
  
 Yes, I can; yes, we can.
 Yes, yes, yes.
  
 Yes, in the silence, writing alone,
 searching into the depths and crevices of one’s inner self.
  
 The poet searching for words among infinite possibilities,
         lacing them into patterns of hope, awe and gratitude; 
 and by reciting one’s words to others,
 emancipates oneself from the shell of writing alone;
  
 weaving the words - eternal story of the continuum of each other.
  
 We are here, we are powerful.                                        
  
  

Portia Choi published a chapbook of her poems Sungsook, Korean War Poems. At Writers of Kern meetings, Choi met Helen Shanley and MaryLou Romagno who became good friends and mentors. Choi hosts First Friday Open Mic and publicizes National Poetry Month in April.  She administers www.kernpoetry.com.  Contact Choi [email protected].