Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Chelan Harkin: I Am Too Much!


 I Am Too Much!
 
It's time to reframe
and reclaim
the phrase,
"I am too much."
 
It's time to practice
being okay with it,
lathering ourselves in it
and basking in all
that we are--
here goes:
 
I'm too much!
I want to devour suns
for breakfast
and kiss the center
of every heart.
 
I'm too much
for niceties, 
all I want
is to experience
the inmost nectar
of the soul.
 
I'm too much!
I'm divorcing myself
from the timid,
ongoingly gray life
of a repressed sky--
let's dive in
to the center of our storms!
 
I'm too much
for small ideologies
to encourage me to live
in the margins of the heart
on the outskirts of life.
 
I'm too much
to be appropriately tipsy--
I want to pop the cork
off this world
and make all things
intoxicated with glee.
 
I'm too much!
I want to stalk God
all the way home
to the center of every beauty
and sweetness.
 
Go forth, glorious
"too much" one
and pour your rivers of light
that quench the world.
 
Go forth and feed
every ravenous soul
from the generous table
of your heart
knowing your essence is one
of feast,
not famine.
 
Go forth and live
in a way that reminds people
how abundantly luminous
each night is
bedecked in her stars.
 
Let your too muchness
be your devotion--
God, after all,
is the Queen of Too Much,
polyamorous with every religion
and every heart as She is
and She does not stop
making her point
after only one galaxy.
 
Yes by all means,
be too much!
 
Your heart was made
to be a gong,
not a penny whistle.
 
Your beauty is a downpour,
not a sprinkle.
 
Your voice is a nourishing meal
for this hungry world,
not a garnish.
 
"You're too much"
has been a tight judgment
that tries to tie down
your vastness
and constrain the cosmos
within you
 
reclaim it and pour forth
your stars
 
reclaim it and become just the right size
to hold the Universe. 
 
Chelan Harkin
From Let Us Dance: The Stumble and Whirl
With the Beloved 
 
 

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