[Poem-a-Week] LOVE LETTER TO MY WORRIES FROM INSIDE THIS BODY by Anna Goodman Herrick

I want to tell you

I want to tell you
about the waves and the sunlight, 
how the wind sounds
like the ocean in the desert,
how all things return
in new forms––
the broken bottle 

as soft, translucent gems. I want to promise 
you that all the garbage you toss
will find its way back
to someone and you can 
experience the sun set in the east
on an island. Sometimes, it’s worth the solitude, 
other times you’ll find nearby islands, and learn 
alone is a word that shapeshifts. 

We can come home
to ourselves
and belong––
and the meaning of ourselves stretches 
and contracts, holds 
as many and as few people as we can 
and can
can swell 

and break, ebb and breathe. 
I want you to remember we belong 

to each other
and to the ocean
and to the ocean that dwells inside us–– 
we, too, are the universe,
expanding, in love, embracing
so much grief
and joy. 

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Anna Goodman Herrick is the author of A Speaker is a Wilderness: Poems on the Sacred Path from Broken to Whole (Monkfish Book Publishing, 2024). She has performed her poetry across the U.S., including at the Emily Dickinson Museum and the Artist Uprising at the El Paso border. She has shared her work at the Library of Congress, Bloomsday on Broadway, the Oprah Winfrey Network, and in film, TV, stage, museums and galleries nationwide. More: annagoodmanherrick.com

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