by Karen Keller Capuciati
As part of our continuing spotlight on the healing poetry of Christine Sherwood, author of Help Me Remember Who I Am, today you can hear Christine read her title poem.
This reading took place at Lenny Foster’s Living Light Gallery in Taos, New Mexico, in October 2011, and was videotaped exclusively for In Care of Dad.
You may recall from our earlier reporting on Christine Sherwood that her stirring book of poetry emerged in 2008 during her recovery from rectal cancer, with which she was diagnosed two years earlier. In fact, when the poems were written, Christine said she didn’t consider herself a writer so much as a conduit, that the prose flowed through her and onto the page in some divine manner. I just love that part of her story.
Today’s poem, “Help Me Remember Who I Am,” is not just for people who’ve experienced a serious illness. It resonates with a general truth, and it’s a message I want to always remember.
Take a moment (165 seconds, to be exact) and treat your soul to the music of her words.
Help Me Remember Who I Am
I tell you this
In my final days do not worry so about my body, the pain, the suffering
I beg you
I implore you
Help me remember who I am
Take me deep into the landscape within
Open the windows of my soul with your eyes that love may pour forth
Stir the pool of my voice that only sacred mantras fill the air
Caress the air that my ears only hear the angels calling me near
Carry my heart with your heart into the vast expanse of eternity
I swear to you that in this way we will never never be apart
I will dance on your lips
Vibrate the wheels of life within you and
Draw you constantly into devotion
And so it will be
Blood of my blood
Womb of my womb
That we will glide the star streams together
And rest in the palm of God
You can watch Christine read her poem “Breathe” or “Cancer Is Kali – Kali Is Cancer” by clicking on the title. If you would like to purchase her book, you can order it online at www.christine-sherwood.com.
