sonder, rubatosis & chrysalism
a poem about the words we need
Hello lovely reflectors. How have you been since last Tuesday? I’ve had quite a stressful week but I’ll spare you the details and keep my promise to give you something nice on a Tuesday.
Someone once told me about the Dictionary of Obscure Wonders (which has either been renamed to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows or I misheard her) and I jotted it down in my notes app and never looked at it again. Fast-forward about four years and its existence popped into my head again while I was writing the poem below. Words that are not quite real but can explain those wonderfully human emotions we never seem to have the word for.
Hope you like it.
there is a word for
the recognition of others being alive
with dreams and schedules
with messy living rooms and old friends they don't speak to anymore
with decisions to make
with a past they try to forget
and you forget
you are not the only one here
there is a word for
the moment you notice your own heartbeat
how your lungs have been doing this dance
to the same song since you were born
a terrifying moment of awe that something so simple
so fragile
is letting you walk, run and talk
stretch and reach for the moon
it's always there
your song
(deep breath)
I'm
a-live a-live a-live
and what about the comfort of being at home
while a wild thunderstorm throws itself against the wind outside
there's a word for that too
the soft flicker of a candle and room-temperature skin
while tree branches are ripped from its source beyond the walls
the stillness of your furniture looks almost unnatural
as the rain dies dramatic deaths against your windows
and you imagine what it would be like to be caught in that right now
and thank god, the moon or the stars that instead you can watch, idle
from the safety of your bedsheets
some of our emotions are destined to float
uncaptured
to stay within the arms of hope that one day
we can hold them in our hands and say
this is how I feel and this is how you feel and this is how we can carry on
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your poetry is gorgeous 🤍
Amazing 💕