Known

Poems of perspective and growth

Heather Pound

• Publisher: Torn Curtain Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781991299222
• Year: 2024

"This is a collection of gentle poems to slip over the shoulders when we need encouragement comfort or simply to know that we are seen by another. Heather writes with a comforting wisdom that holds up the ordinary experiences that each of us encounter as part of this thing called 'being alive'. Each poem calls us to pay attention whether to the natural world around us or to the rich inner world that we are shaped from." Liezel Graham Artist and author of The Velveting Bones.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• today i choose to gather
• when you have so much to do, take a moment and just be.
• these bodies that i birthed into existence
• we know the taste of sweet
• no matter what your thoughts tell you
• i have always known that ‘his yoke is easy, his burden light’
• luxuriously she stretches, the cat lying in the sun
• i used to think that papaya
• in the terrible night of the soul
• you can do your utmost to persuade me
• if choice looms before you in a way that overwhelms
• when the workmen dug beside the road
• in that vulnerable time before sleep
• tonight i cooked a pumpkin,
• hold onto hope for someone you love.
• the blackbird chirping outside knows
• you went outside into nature to ponder
• the next chair over sits a man
• i want to remind you
• when i lived in the desert, i had no respect for cacti
• find a cosy spot and sit calm
• i do not need to put on my best dress
• there was a time when trauma roared
• when you feel heavy or tired and you don’t know why
• a plump little song thrush
• today is blustery, miserable and damp.
• when we walked through the rose garden
• once i saw a lady laughing with her friends
• open your heart, my love, to the possibility
• now is the time—do not delay
• what will you do when love comes to call
• do you ever look in the mirror and wonder,
• it has taken quite a few years, but i think i am now close to
• roll down the windows of life
• i live in that bewildering place ‘in-between’
• it matters not if i agree
• overcast but pleasant, gentle salty breeze
• today
• all those niggling worries and deeply felt fears
• when you don’t know where you’re going
• you know what it’s like to watch the pain of someone you love
• God and i had a conversation
• you must
• i wonder what it will take
• please don’t run from your very own thoughts.
• i am regretful, my love
• we wander through grass to table cement
• you are caught in a tangle
• she sat in the front turning
• sometimes
• they never tell you when you hold
• wind lashes, sand stings
• she told me to accept what i was feeling
• love first blooms fresh and sparkling with dew
• the worst thing about fear
• if you, my friend, carry a cup of tea
• a flame flickers in the darkness
• wouldn’t it be amazing
• for perhaps a year or even three
• i do not care what you have heard
• there are things in this world that horrify
• i bring you my list of worries
• if you want to heal
• you do not
• someone i admire was asked
• the earth holds its breath, waiting
• i don’t know about you
• i remember feeling fragile during summer
• i leave the pegs on the clothesline, waiting
• if you cannot move
• childish faces from time past
• you are allowed to
• when i was young, i wanted to
• you can choose to let
• she walked
• out beyond where your thoughts may wander
• i know it has been a while
• when i was younger
• as i sat in the room with my most loved ones
• i have watched you for years
• joy is not elsewhere, far off
• you had this idea that you could go out
• the fog rolls in soft and comforting.
• there you stand, dipping in your
• i have spent too much time
• i had to gather myself together
• there is a space that is miraculous
• sit with me beside the sea
• when fragile
• i would have never wished
• we always know when hunting season arrives
• carrying stones so heavy you have
• what is it that holds you back
• the storm is rising, forecasting
• you do not complete me
• the daylight slips away
• do not gaze long on the bottom of the jar
• as i contemplate the grief
• the morning sun breaks
• i want you to know today tomorrow
• i feel the breeze stir
• there is warmth
• come to the place that is rest softly. you need not
• when you put a seed
• just because you are
• in the spirit of transparency
• you hang your head in
• the walls loom high
• how did she know
• are you getting to know
• to be accepted
• i will not lie
• it is no small thing
• i do not need to defend you
• you ask why you need
• the mountain soars above
• on our last holiday we panned for gold:
• other people’s expectations
• that thing that tries to stifle,
• I hope that you consider
• the egg shakes and then it cracks
• i thought i had forgiven you
• how can i explain to you
• this place of sadness is not your home,
• while the storm may roar around
• as i sit beside and ponder
• he sat, head hooded, sunglasses on
• you hold out your hand
• after the winter,
• try not to fall into traps of thinking
• you tend to float away
• we are droplets
• how did one small babe
• - breakup letter to anxiety -
• do you feel like you’re in the waiting
• you feel ground up, crushed,
• yesterday while sitting
• when i came into this world
• the clock ticks
• this is my humble apology
• if you had told me way back then