Hello Reader,

This is a sacred collection.

It details my ongoing journey toward embodiment and presence, in as many moments as possible.

One of my most sincere beliefs in this life is that the body is the source of truth. This is hard-won knowledge, originally gifted to me when I learned I had to trust the trauma responses and nurture myself through the process of physiological recovery before I could gain access to visual memories. That is not detailed in this collection, as I started writing poetry in the aftermath of this understanding.

What is detailed here, though, is the starting point of recovery: learning how to notice that there even was feeling in my body. And then the long, twisting, gnarly trail through brambles and hornets nests to reach the place where my body feeds me language long before my mind ever can.

There are a few fascinating (to me) moments where I have included something that has a notable absence of bodily langugage; these pieces are often heady and distressed.

I am excited to send you into the weeds, but! There is one huge, massive, red-flashing-lights disclaimer here: The poetry documents state. The poetry does not document the work, not really.

There were countless hours spent in somatic processing that could not be condensed into language in the moment. I endeavor to share more of that process in other mediums, of course! Worth mentioning explicitly here, though.

Okay enough chatter.

Get on with it!

Happy reading! ~ Alida