Are you doing OK, as we move deeper into the Season? Maybe you are makingplans to spend time with those who bring you joy? I’m keeping busy, not with holiday preparations, but with writing, listening to a variety of audiobooks, and music — whatever it takes to soften the anxiety of this moment. To escape worry. The past wasn’t less complicated; I saw life with innocent eyes, which, as I grew, often translated to naivete. I survived all that.
Today, I have a poem in prose for you about a four-year-old adoptee’s joyful moment in 1954.
spinning...
Adoption is a Whisper A Prose Poem
Her mother helps her pierce the succulent stemsand thread the sweet rose clover into chains, to twist and twine them into a necklace with white daisies, shaggy golden lions, dandy white wild daisies, and sweet pink clover. She’s four, and doesn’t know she’ll be a seeker one day. She has no plans but to pick flowers, and sing, and twirl. She knows all the words. They came to her along a tune. A tune came along to play from out of the brown radio on the kitchen counter. The melody came to her with words. It came out whole with words inside, strong and high. On her neck she feels the fragrant flowers, smells the dangling clover chain. Her love is words, and a clover chain around her neck. She sings her tune about the ones who love her. The ones she loves. Adoption is a whisper, but she knows the story in her heart, and she sings the story, and spins. And her story spins her. She spins and twirls, her brown hair, pinned back in barrettes, bounces on her back in soft waves, ringlets, and curls. It falls on her shoulders in corkscrews. She spirals on the sunny grass, stumbles, and drops down dizzy, laughing, and gets up giddy. Around, around the white birch clumps where little pools of rain collect for sparrows to sip. Her song is about her world. A song that was a whisper, a song that no one knows.
A Quick Roots & Branches update:
“Through The Yew Hedge: A Tale of Identity Magic” continues every Wednesday in serial. With a few adjustments ~
What’s staying:
Infant Ruth Ann’s journey from foundling to her true identity.
Weekly, Wednesday magic leading to the ebook/print launch later this month.
Novella free to read in full here on Substack.
What’s changing:
No more portal e-mails. Each episodes will come directly to you.
New section name: “Through The Yew Hedge - Serial Novella.”
“Roots & Branches” posts are moving to once or twice monthly during the serial.
Summary: My novella is presently in serial on Roots & Branches. I began to roll it out by e-mail over the past few weeks, inviting you to click to “The Garden Between Worlds.” I’d aimed to make the installments exclusive by email link to the section, but I found it unsustainable; a cumbersome and confusing set-up.
Instead, I’ll be publishing episodes directly into this newsletter as early on Wednesdays as I can muster. You’ll receive each installment (#4 is next) in your inbox from Through The Yew Hedge - Novella Series.
With Gratitude,
P.S. All episodes will remain in the Section, and if you’re joining late, you may begin at the Prologue.
Looking forward to the next installment