A funny thing happened on the way to my writing goal
How a 100-day-goal turned into a 30-day-deadline; notes on an empty womb inspired by a room of one's own; and today's 24-word poem
Welcome back to The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined. Here you’ll find poems and lyrical prose inspired by the life of the biblical matriarch, Sarah. It’s free! But a paid subscription supports this project and gives you access to exclusive content.
One deadline ends, and another one …
I announced a couple of months back that I planned to complete 50 Sarah poems in 100 days.
Well, you know what they say, when we make plans, God(dess) laughs. Somewhere around Day 40, a publisher emailed me with an offer I could not refuse.
That means that my 100-day goal for the Sarah poems was replaced temporarily by a commitment to write 50 pages on my other favorite topic (dreams) in 30 days!
My new deadline rolls around in 7 days, at which time I’ll begin a weekend-long writing retreat. And that’s when I plan (here we go again) to re-acquaint myself with Sarah and restart my 100-day goal.
Preparing a room of my own
In preparation for the retreat (to which you’re invited, by the way), I wrote a post for my other Newsletter about setting up my study for a weekend of immersive writing. Titled “A Room of One’s Own,” the post relates, tangentially, to the theme of this week’s poem that you’ll find a little further down. (I haven’t abandoned the Sarah project altogether during this hiatus.)
You can check out that post here:
Sarah’s womb, revisited
Today’s poem, titled “Barren Womb” returns to a recurring theme in The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined: my belief that Sarah was not barren. Instead, I think she chose to remain childless for most of her life because evidence points to the fact that she was likely a Mesopotamian priestess, and in that role, she was expected not to get pregnant.
You can read more about my take on Sarah’s — and my — motherhood journeys here:
And now without further ado … drumroll, please
… This week’s poem (in 24 words or fewer)
In this week’s poem, I imagine Sarah’s womb as a room;
as a space a woman might choose to keep empty;
a space where she can exercise her powers of creation, in whatever way she wishes.
It’s a brief poem, containing only 24 words! So listen carefully and see what ideas, images, yearnings, resistance, or celebration it evokes for you.
Barren Womb
Barren Womb, Copyright Tzivia Gover, all rights reserved.
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