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This poem by Marlanda Dekine (Sapient Soul) invites the reader to explore the mysteries that lie beyond the initial perception of familiarity in response to Job 1:21.
Job 1:21
Getting Lighter
By
Marlanda Dekine
Credits:
Curated by:
Spark+Echo Arts
2019
Poetry
Primary Scripture
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I am working to transmute feelings of loss. Of expectation & disappointment. Of feeling trapped in a liminal and transitional space, navigating desires and fears. I believe many people experience these feelings. I am certainly not the only person in my personal ancestry to experience them. There is both mysticism and groundedness in the experience of losing memory, time, loved ones, perceptions, beliefs, etc.
I considered "Naked came I", "gave", "taken", and "blessed" within the context of the scripture and several words began to form free associations in my mind: cycles, birth, death, creation, destruction, coming, going, living, seeing, dying, uncontrollable, flow, stand. We can set deliberate intention amidst chaos at all times, I believe. This poem wanted to play within that realm and see what emerged.
Spark Notes
The Artist's Reflection
Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul (she/her/they) is a poet and social worker from Plantersville, South Carolina. She is pursuing her MFA in Poetry with New York University's Low-Residency program in Paris.
Learn more about their work at sapientsoul.com.
Marlanda Dekine
About the Artist
2020 Artist in Residence: Marlanda Dekine
Know Thyself
Marlanda Dekine
Other Works By
Related Information
She told me about being wee little
waking early smashing watermelons
busting them into dirt
Getting Lighter
by Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul
She told me about being wee little
waking early smashing watermelons
busting them into dirt
slobbering over meat and seed
sneaky childish and winning
now we call her demented
she is epigenetic riverway
across dimensions
and grandma is afraid
of the expansive highway
of the world that takes her children
and love does not mean stay
i have wanted my want as prayer
obsessed with the water
floating in small space
the only space i believed
i came from
when a thing comes up out of me
i follow ask where we are going
why so far away from here
when a thing comes up out of grandma
she listens tells me what great-grandma
tellin’ her these days beyond the veil
grandma’s mother is telling her things
like my aunt always has dreams that speak
they both pray when no one knows
steady stitching through shifts
heating the stars
and i am gone some place far
some place grandma told me i could not go
some free and scary place she cannot see
except when she looks at me
and really looks at me
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She told me about being wee little
waking early smashing watermelons
busting them into dirt
