If You Want To Write

You must first
come to love it.
Your notebook
must become your home,
the place you return to
in order to feel yourself again.

Initially, though,
it might be a place
you avoid,
as if there is some truth
so awful,
you are afraid
to acknowledge it.

It is like a noise
in your attic
that you imagine must be
a terrible monster.
But when you are
brave enough to face it,

you see that
it is just a child
who has been waiting,
forgotten.

Go to her.
She is you.
Love her the way
only you know
she needs to be loved.

It is not that complicated.
What’s complicated
are all the things you do
to avoid
this simplest,
most lovely
discovery.

Just give her love.
Play together.
That is the holiness,
the healing
both giver
and receiver
need.

By Maria Brady-Smith
Photo by Mike Smith