I’m grateful to invite Taylor Murray to be guest blogger on Smuggling Grace. Taylor’s poetry is so invitational!
Saturdays
Saturdays, because they are the middle of the week, are for world building
which entails world noticing.
what shall we put on the ark to save?
what will we morph, transform, meld?
what will we bury with miles of ocean?
Saturday is for possibilities, small risks
it is for questions, lots of questions, and no answers
what could this be? if given more love, more attention?
saturday is for turning your head upside down. laying in the grass as the sun rises. sniffing most things
it is for pausing and also humming in cacophony
it is for albums you’ve never listened to before
and going down dead end roads
no outlet?…maybe for someone else, but you know how to shapeshift!
oh, and obviously Saturday is for turning into a triangle. it is the most stable shape
it is a time for sitting and pondering, what is the question? if the answer is 42….
it is for mapping and charting the moon’s journey, surfing the sky
it is also for rest and closed eyes, and pin drops
and for crying, and processing, and laughing and processing
it is for digging up old things and revisiting, returning
hanging them up on the wall
then reconsidering the practice of hanging things on the wall
it is for hurling yourself out of the rut, so you can see the sun again
it is also for cold showers and breathing deeply through discomfort
it is for documentary watching and joining facebook groups of zine lovers
it is for calling people out of the blue just to say, hey, if i was in an ocean’s 11 situation, I just want you to know, I’d have you in my squad
it is for writing letters to your grandparents and doing book self portraits
it is for recording bird sounds
Inverting the colors of your phone
Calling your phone a hand rock
It is for juicing something
or frying somethingIt is for learning Morse code
And then using it to communicate with the raccoons in your neighborhood
Bestowing names to the plants you walk past
And moving around your furniture
Wearing socks inside out
And having a staring competition with the void
Learning how to juggle and how to make an igloo
Figuring out that the stage is probably the safest place to scream
For making art with your shadow
And for pickling your curiosity
It is for pruning the garden of your mind
For tasting refusal in your mouth and learning to savor it
Walking with your eyes closed and your back front
It is for taking what you know to be true
and then unknowing it
dis-knowing it
make the familiar, strange and weird
That is what Saturdays are for.
Oh wait, did I say Saturday?
Well, of course, by that I meant
Every day.
Taylor is a student at the University of Michigan, currently taking a semester off from her computer science studies. She is the co-founder and president of Tech for Social Good a student org creating critical conversations about technology and society. She is also a self-described renaissance woman and currently is learning Korean, thinking about communal grieving, and combatting grind culture. You can reach her at murratay@umich.edu.
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