Diana Woodcock

I Could Stay Home

Without leaving my house, I know the whole universe. – Lao-Tzu

Yet here I go again, this time
to Hawai’i, part of me
longing to stay put,
but to boot I’m off to meet
more of my non-human kin –
to take them into my heart:

endangered birds and mammals,
trees and flowers. Also my
human kin – indigenous Hawaiians
whose land it was/is.
There’ll be a full moon
while I’m there – the Worm Moon,

day of prayer for preparation
of the soil. For the duration
of my visit, I will not toil;
instead I’ll meditate and
recreate – the days growing
longer, the light warmer.

And here I’ll go again,
not giving in to despair –
determined to be grateful
I was not there – not one
of the five thousand who died
in the recent earthquake

Turkey and Syria. I have survived
into my seventh decade, saved
so far from serious injury,
illness, and the soul’s dark night.
Yes, here I go again,
calling on endemic flora

and fauna to save me from
despair, rescue me from
destruction everwhere so I can
finally for awhile breathe
slowly and deeply,
letting the panic dissipate.

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Diana Woodcock has authored seven chapbooks and six poetry collections, most recently Heaven Underfoot (2022 Codhill Press Pauline Uchmanowicz Poetry Award https://www.codhill.com/product/heaven-underfootdiana-woodcock/), Holy Sparks (2020 Paraclete Press Poetry Award finalist https://paracletepress.com/products/holy-sparks) and Facing Aridity (2020 Prism Prize for Climate Literature finalist). A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, she received the 2011 Vernice Quebodeaux Pathways Poetry Prize for Women for her debut collection, Swaying on the Elephant’s Shoulders. Currently teaching at VCUarts Qatar, she holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, where she researched poetry’s role in the search for an environmental ethic. https://qatar.vcu.edu/news/our-faculty/dr-diana-g-woodcock/.

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