Description
The Japanese woman poet, Izumi Shikibu, wrote this five-line tanka around the year 1000:
Yes, the wind
blows terribly here—
but moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.
(translation by Jane Hirshfield)
This poem reveals, in a flood of radiant night-wisdom, a magic secret: when we move or are moved beyond what we have come rely on as our shelter, we can plunge into the transformational moment. There is a wealth of poetry across time and cultures that offers writers a way to move in and through their own sorrow and stories.
Poetry often calls to us at the transitional and difficult times in our lives: during times of loss, death, divorce. Our stories and emotions beg to pour onto the page. The root of “healing” is “wholeness.” When we heal, we restore what feels broken to wholeness. Poetry can reknit the self: the process of choosing and weaving together words can re-story the self into a new wholeness by giving our courageous, sorrowing hearts voice. Accompanied by transformative poetry, we’ll write our way through grief … to gift.
About Judyth Hill
Judyth Hill—poet, maestra, and editor—authored the internationally acclaimed poem “Wage Peace.” Educated at Sarah Lawrence College, she studied with Robert Bly, Galway Kinnell, and Deep-Ecologist Dolores LaChapelle. Her nine published books of poetry include Dazzling Wobble and Writing Down the Moon. Her poems are widely anthologized. The recipient of grants from the Witter Bynner Poetry Foundation, McCune Foundation, and New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities, Hill served from 1994 to 2000 as Literary Projects Coordinator for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Hill is the chair of PEN International Women Writers Committee; president emerita of San Miguel PEN Centre; codirector of Poetry Mesa, a global poetry organization; editor-in-chief of the hybrid publishing company Wild Rising Press; and an Anusara Yoga special subjects instructor. Originator of the WildWriting poetry process, she conducts workshops worldwide and on Zoom; offers one-on-one manuscript editing and mentoring; and leads Muse on the Move literary adventures in Taos, New Mexico, Ireland, and Mexico. She was described by the St. Helena Examiner as “energy with skin” and by The Denver Post as a “tigress with a pen.”
judythhill.com | 
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