Thresholds: Danger & Possibility

beach fire, gearhart, oregon; friday, july 13, 2012

"Twilight is a fascinating threshold for it is then that the light finally falls away and the dark closes its grip on the world. This is a frontier of tension; it is at once beginning and end, origin and completion. Here is where two opposing forces reach towards each other to create a vital frontier filled with danger and possibility."

~John O'Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

I'm becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of thresholds, the edges of things, the ecotones of the world, the places where one thing gives way to -- or seeps in to -- another. The here-and-there, now-and-then, this-and-that, both/and-either/or nature of places, thoughts, and beliefs. Even people.

I've written several essays about thresholds (between the visible and invisible, between the known and unknown), and they're making their rounds at literary journals, looking for a home. Even this process is like standing on a threshold, waiting for that one acceptance letter that will transform an essay from one thing (unpublished) to another (published).

While looking through my journals tonight, I found a poem that I apparently wrote in response to a writing prompt (from Liz Lamoreux) back in February 2011 at a Be Present Retreat. I don't remember writing it, but there it is in my own hand, and I have to admit that yes, it sounds like me. It brings up the tensions between things, the thresholds of which I'm so fond. In my journal it's untitled, but I think I'll borrow a line from Mr. O'Donohue and call it "Danger & Possibility."

I don't write a lot of poetry, and I share even less of it, mostly because it always has me walking the thin line between pride and embarrassment (it's own threshold). But finding this forgotten collection of words felt somehow serendipitous tonight, so here it is.

Danger & Possibility

I am an overripe peony, full-blown and prime
A drab beggar on a pilgrimage
A haunted dove afloat
The vanishing point.
Ginger butterscotch in a honey pot.
I am bewildered, raw, the cosmos in a circus tent.
I am the chomp and fold
The echoes of flocks
A flat prison mattress.
I am the joy
The lens
The plume.

** ** **
Upcoming in-person reading: I'll be giving a reading of some of my prose (not poetry!) on Friday, September 21 as part of Juxtapositions, a quarterly live music and reading series at the Keynote Cafe in my hometown, Jeannette, PA. I'll probably be reading from an essay entitled "Thresholds," as well as from my "Roller Derby Makes Me Brave" series. If you're local, please come out for a fun night to enjoy live music from Essential Machine (folk pop), The Feel-Good Revolution (indie folk duo), and The Fledgelings (post-rock), plus readings from Dennis C. Lee (dreams and lyrics), Meghan Tutolo (poetry), and me (prose). Tickets are just $5 at the door and include light refreshments. It's also BYOB (so bring me a drink if you come!). More details are here.