to be delicate here…

self-love... the most delicate intimacy - butterflies rising

it’s so delicate here.
but it’s where i’m the most brutal.
it’s where my raging gets careless,
and the delicate things end up crushed.
i fight my hardest fights
trying to love the deepest love,
but i’ve never been more unkind
than i’ve been in these close quarters
…in this head, and to this heart.
and when others have been unkind,
how quick i’ve been to betray myself and just agree.
and i’ve let it all hurt so much that unworthy has felt
like the only feeling i may ever again know…
like a flower whose every last petal has been torn away and
thrown to the wind with nothing left to recognize as beautiful.
just wilted. and bare with pain.
but what if it hurts this way for a reason…
because that ache in me is the fight in me
to learn to feel different.
because somewhere deep inside i know
that i want to be delicate here… desperately.
and when they’re unkind, and when i’m unkind,
somewhere deep down, i know that i fiercely. disagree.
and there’s a wild blossom in me and it’s too beautiful
to ever just be torn away and thrown to the wind.
and there’s a tenderness that i’m made of and an intimacy
that i’m part of… one that i’m going to learn
to take such delicate care of.

– butterflies rising

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uncovered…

they didn’t take pieces of you

they didn’t take pieces of you…
don’t give the people who hurt you that power

they broke loose, and dislodged,
and extracted pieces of you
that could just no longer stay part of you
and who you’re becoming

so as you’re letting those people go,
be willing to let those pieces go too

…let a new version of you
be uncovered

– butterflies rising

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ways to break this southern girl’s heart…

she’s made up of sweet tea and poetry

Ways To Break This Southern Girl’s Heart
after Diane Lato’s “Easy Ways To Break My Heart”

– give her unsweetened tea. there are no two more terrible words to a southern girl when put together

– tell her you’re an alabama fan. you’ve gotta know that she’s gonna bleed volunteer orange ‘til the end no matter

– tell her you don’t like the mountains. her heart has east tennessee sunrises imprinted on it… and she wants to show you every sunlit, treelined, starkissed view

– turn down the volume when ‘country girl’ by ray lamontagne comes on. papa used to play it for her on the porch, and she’s gotta hear every bit of it, every time

– you wanna really crush her heart? then ask to meet her daddy. because he isn’t in her heart anymore. he was the first one who broke it, and in too many ways, long ago

– and if you wanna just completely shatter her into pieces… then try to give her an ordinary love. because she needs love like wildfire. like forever-fire. until every last southern sun sets. till the stars burn out. and to know her heart is finally safe… with you

…she needs to know that breaking her heart is the very last thing you would ever want to do.

– butterflies rising

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do you really believe that you were given this poetry heart…

you were given this poetry heart

Poetry Heart…

do you really believe
that you were given this poetry heart,
and filled up with all this magic you hold,
and made capable of such big love,
to have it all be meant for someone
who treated you that way…

they were not the one.

– butterflies rising

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how beautiful it feels while you’re holding it…

maybe it tangles with chaos and loses hold of safe and sane... but that kind of love will be like wildfire.

maybe
it tangles with chaos
and loses hold of safe and sane…
but that kind of love will be like wildfire.
and the way they touch you
will feel like wildfire.
and your heart…
it will take everything in like it’s on fire.
and it may be heavy on your soul when it breaks you,
but only because you burned so deep for it.
maybe it’s brutal when you have to let it
fall from your hands,
but god, how beautiful it feels
while you’re holding it.

– butterflies rising

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sun-flavored love…

abundant and sun-flavored and overflowing on me

Sun-flavored Love…

i’ve learned that
i deserve more than a starved love…
that kind where you feed off of me
because you can’t fill yourself

i deserve rich love, extra love
abundant and sun-flavored and overflowing on me
because you’re full within yourself

– butterflies rising

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choices…

i hope you know you matter now chosen by no one belonging to yourself

i hope you know
you matter now
chosen by no one
belonging to yourself

i hope you go on
living in skin untouched by anything that your
sovereignty did not bless into your existence
and breathing air that holds no can’ts
and carries no words
of how a woman
should or should not be

– choices

– butterflies rising

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