“Overcomers – Now and in the Future” by Tania Martin
We mined our histories with feathers.
We remembered the lies that blew out the light.
We owned our partial blindness.
We owned our imprisoned hopes.
One of us kicked in her own blood,
another wandered in the valley of the shadows,
another carried water for others while dying of thirst.
Some of us witnessed demons;
others, the blood-letting of fake love.
All of us, bruised by the
disintegration of common sense,
sound thinking, free choice.
We named how we were captured.
Where we stayed stuck.
What we lost in isolation.
In sharing, our words took on wings,
flew us out the doors we’d shut,
into what we once held holy,
into our Savior’s arms.
And there we were, and here we are.
Living cathedrals, befriended by tears,
echoing with desire,
loving not our self-willed lives
even unto death.
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Tania Martin Artist Statement:
I am a narrative painter, storyteller, poet, and photographer. I am a cultural caretaker. I feed myself in the process of creating and feed others as I send truth out into the world. I am a hunter of beauty cast into the darkness of irreparable loss. I find it there always, but waiting is hard.
Writing and art bridge the bifurcated tension of lows and highs. My practices bring me needed oxygen when sudden madness in the form of my husband’s nocturnal seizures yank me twisted awake. I cannot damn the dirge that launches me into the arms of God. Art and writing keep me from lapsing into Tourette-like complaining, though I do complain. Creativity is a forgiving governor.
WAVES ALIVE |
