a lyric gathering of seasons
mortification of the flesh + finally menstruating, writing patterns, and preparing for the season of the scorpion
below is a lyric essay-esque gathering of thoughts and sources and personal “hmm”s as of late. also, hi! I’m back from Thailand and Indonesia and have been caffeine, alcohol, meat, dairy, gluten etc. etc. —free (with some exceptions ok) for over two months and my body’s loud screams of “slow down! let me heal! you’re in overdrive!” have been heeded, finally. I call this my Mortification of the Flesh season because dramatic language is the what it takes for me to take something with the utmost reverence, I suppose.
wanna join Poemvember 2023? Look in the footnotes for the invite link!
a lyric gathering of seasons
I’ve experienced my first moon-length cycle in over 13 years. I am grateful for this, I am. But why must I become so fucking useless this week when I planned so much to write?
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Agnès Varda reminds me that if I were to open any one person, I’d find a landscape.
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This year,
talks about our capacities widening. She assures me I’m not who I was before. I am capable of difficulty every day now that I have shown my body it can bleed.—
I write environmental prompts for November’s daily poem group1. By environmental prompts, I mean little daily practices like feng shui2. Environmental like another type of energy I can treat hygienically.
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Finally, I am using this menstrual cup3 instead of bleeding through plugs of plastic and cotton and bleach. For 16 days in August, I had to return to the 7 Elevens in Chiang Mai, hunting down tampons hidden in the back. I bled and bled and concerned myself with a diet filled with iron so I would not faint.
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Environmental prompt: move 21 things in your writing space. Tell yourself how the energy has shifted. Even if it hasn’t.
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“Lucie Brock-Broido writes only in the fall.” I hear Nadia Colburn say this in a Q + A session while she discusses her writing course titled “The Poetry of Attention.” Someone had asked her if a writer must write daily. I type in the chat: the idea of writing in only one season… is liberation.
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There’s a book titled Wintering on my shelf that I might read someday. I consider one whole season for reading.4
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If this summer was a season with one task or verb, it would be the season of recovering. Getting sick and wondering if I’ve recovered or not. Bleeding, and then not bleeding for a day, and then bleeding again.5
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Environmental prompt: write next to your most convenient water source. Use this source like you’ll never lose it6.
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I “chart” out the months I’ve written with energy and intention. It totals to maybe 3 or 4 months out of the year. If I “chart” out these months, they are always while the sun is in a water sign. The fish, the crab, or the scorpion.
I brace myself for the season of the scorpion7.
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Yes, I realize my patterns are mostly made of 1 occurrence.
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I tried to chart out when I bled to see if Venus or Saturn could be blamed, but I don’t know how to make those numbers work for me8.
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Environmental prompt: Make the following statement true. There is nothing better than a Wisconsin June.
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I wonder if I’m able to write without coffee or tea, though it’s likely my internal systems have healed because of this mortification of the flesh: an energy-less recovering season. Do I choose to poke the bear with gunpowder or chai9?
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Why would I want to bleed as frequently as the moon?
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Environmental prompt: imagine your body as the Wisconsin June. On which parts of her do you luxuriate? Which of her landscapes do you retreat to?
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If I could choose them, I’d separate the year into bleeding season and breathing season and reading season and sleeping season.
Want to join a daily poem writing Discord group? Here’s the link. Message me privately after Oct. 27th for a fresh link! It’s free, low-key, and meant to be energy lifting while the northern hemisphere loses vitamin D.
Marty, Otto, and I have finally moved into a place! We’re living very close to the lake in Sheboygan, WI. And every sentence is informed by the various feng shui texts we’ve been reading as we organizing and decorate the place.
I’ve struggled to find a menstrual cup that was comfortable enough to even see if it worked. This one from Saalt works so well — highly recommend for people looking for one for themselves. I’m grateful that I found a non-toxic way to catch my blood and guts!
The idea of treating swaths of time as seasons was gifted to me first by
whose wisdoms has directly led to me taking better care of my body and my soul. She often prompts our friend group chat to check in with our current seasons so as to remind each other that we all need seasons of rest, seasons of release, seasons of "sun, etc. Thank you, Breena <3I worried about bleeding through my lightweight linen pants as I rode in taxis all throughout the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia.
For almost 13 years, I either chemically or herbally induced periods when I felt like I had gone long enough for endometrial diseases or cancers to develop. Black cohosh twice daily for a week would often do the trick.
Scorpio season begins October 23rd this year.
I offer archetypal astrology deep dives and zoom readings now! I promise I won’t be looking for planets to blame in your natal chart.
The Coffee and Tea Exchange rooibos chai has been a delicious swap for caffeinated chai. Also, chicory root and roasted dandelion root tea has really helped me with starting my morning in a similar way to coffee or tea without stressing my adrenals out at all. And, actually, they support adrenal health!