Sunday, June 8, 2014

Alla Renée Bozarth: Belonging


The small plot of ground 
on which you were born 
cannot be expected
to stay forever 
the same. 

Earth changes, 
and home 
becomes different 
places.

You took flesh 
from clay 
but the clay 
did not come 
from just one 
place.

To feel alive, 
important, and safe, 
know your own waters 
and hills, but know 
more.

You have stars 
in your bones 
and oceans 
in blood.

You have opposing 
terrain in each eye.

You belong to the land 
and sky of your first cry, 
you belong to infinity.
 
- Alla Renée Bozarth
 

2 comments:

Alla Bozarth said...

Lovely to see my poem, "Belonging" here. This is the attribution that needs to accompany it. Thanks and deep blessings~

"Belonging" by Alla c Bozarth is from the audiotapes, Dance for Me When I Die and Reading Out Loud to God {under the title, “Stars in Your Bones,” from which the book of poems and paintings was later named}, Alla Renée Bozarth, Wisdom House, copyright 1990; Stars in Your Bones, Alla Bozarth, Julia Barkley and Terri Hawthorne, North Star Press 1990; This Mortal Marriage: Poems of Love, Lament and Praise, Alla Renée Bozarth, iUniverse, copyright 2003. All rights reserved. This poem was put to music by St. Paul, Minnesota composer, Steve Heitzeg, commissioned in 2000 by the people of Grand Forks, North Dakota for a ceremony of healing following the destruction and rebuilding of their town after the catastrophic Red River flood of 1997. Online: http://allabozarthwordsandimages.blogspot.com/p/great-communion-why-we-exist.html For reprint permission write the poet: allabearheart@yahoo.com

Molly Strong said...

Thank you so much for informing me of this. Such a beautiful poem. Thank you. Warmest blessings... Molly