One: Collaborative Wordbank: (mountain):Rooted in the watersTheir flow the beginning and the edge of beingA lush invitation, to the depths fallingThere is refuge only in the walkingSettled rhythms workingThe deep release of standing in now Two: Frame of Reference: (a teapot):Writer to Object:Hard edged but not angularRidged and communicative to fingertip and tongueWarm, wet inhalations … Continue reading Three Tools: (a writing workshop):
Author: ANGorniak
I am a clinician, a writer, and an educator who finds meaning in facilitating the healing and transformation of others. I am a Brigidine and a Druid practicing mostly within the framework of Ár nDraíocht Féin. Scholarship is important to me as one way of knowing, but it is not the only one that informs my life and work. Certainly, my devotional relationships and engagement with my ancestors, the persons (human and otherwise) who surround me, and my gods do as well, often in ways that can be difficult to articulate but which I value. I reside in Texas, a land whose beauty echoes in my blood and bones. I am a former foster youth, queer, and learning to live with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. My clinical and research work as a psychological professional focuses on trauma and its sequelae, on healing and post-traumatic growth for people and families and systems, and on working in ways that are Pagan and LGBTQ+ friendly. In my free time, I read voraciously, play tabletop games and DnD, enjoy classic cocktails, study herbalism and garden, bake, play with fiber arts, and enjoy exploring with my husband and pups.
safety is (not) a passage
Molten I am, cracking my shell,devour my own abandoned flesh;nutritive, my hunger burns the hotter,a sacrifice shrouded in the roots which rundeeper on the path at our feet, the pathfound only in what feeds us.lapping waters spill from lipslimned by a fresh confusion,opening vistas ordered along newly broken lines;a narrative written in breath and beingand … Continue reading safety is (not) a passage
Storied Soil
If I can’t save usthen let me taste the full measure of itsearing my throatas I swallow deep this life, these tears.If I can’t save usthen let me see each of us,though I long to tear myself away,drinking to the dregs our bitter truth.If we are dyingthen let us know that we have killed,let us … Continue reading Storied Soil
The Sight
There are daysI yearn for the languageto put all that speaks to mebefore the world.I dig into myselflooking for some gift of words like soilto nourish the things unfurling inand aroundus all,the spaces betweenwhere relationship is written. Instead,I find ash,and the gentle invitation of a heart firefed by all that remainsyet unnamedwithin me.Perhaps it is … Continue reading The Sight
Traceries
I sit beside the me that is youholding hands, holding our grief, I say,as you look back at us, those years like a wasteland,I say, “This is our fertile ground,this is our watershedflowing into mighty being, confluencepoints in the journey.”My heart marvels at the way our broken piecesrefract the beauty in these stark-edged, sharp-eyedraptor placeswhere … Continue reading Traceries
Poetry
Spokenfreely, givingvoice in the silenced placewhere into darkness roots what isneedful,a term undefined by all butthe living of what mayresound trulywithin. (I'm starting to try to learn about different poetry forms. This is a mirror cinquain. A regular cinquain is 5 unrhymed lines with a syllable pattern of 2, 4, 6, 8, 2 so a … Continue reading Poetry
Axial
there is an incredible richness of beingrooted and nourishedby all that dies, fecundity arisingfrom that which ceases to dance.there is a rustle in the hearthibernating passions stirring in dreamsthat haunt us when we wake, movingthrough a world that tells us never to wake again.there is a deepening intomy own cracked and crevased, windwhistling through a … Continue reading Axial
May My Feet Walk the Path
There are two storiesweaving through metwisting sinewsalready taut with pain and panic.I am bereft, adrift,choking on lonelinessand all that is unspoken. Time seems a torment, myself a prisoner within itand there is a peace in naming it.I have no words of beauty or wisdom,nothing of value to give. Still, there is richness here;joy and sorrow … Continue reading May My Feet Walk the Path
A Lughnasadh Prayer
Written by AN Gorniak, 2021. Image from Spark Post free image gallery, chosen because I made whole grain pancakes and berries for my own offering. I stand before you, Shining Ones,and offering I bring.Tailtiu, Foster Mother, who gave freely all that you could give that your people may eat;Lugh Samildánach, who knew the worth of … Continue reading A Lughnasadh Prayer
Given Voice
I visit that secluded poolSettle into silence there, feet cooled by mossy outgrowths of meaningCaressed by deep currentsReflectingWords weave into lifeStories darting silvered just beneath awarenessFlashes catching the eye, jewel brightEnticingThere is no room for striving hereNo net nor reel can draw in what catches youHeld, holding a welling of those same word-watersNourishedGiven voice
Rooted Flame and a Deep Wellspring 