Beth Morey's Blog, page 16

My Words are a Whisper, My Words are a Howl

I bowed down at the altar of should and ought to and don't trust that dissembling soul of yours. I pressed my forehead hard against the prayer rug until the carpet fibers imprinted the skin there into the permanent creases born of a disembodied life lived for everyone else.

And then one day I feel something, silver-new and dissonant. It takes time, years, until I can name it for what it is – the hot-cold edge of a blade balanced on the back of my neck, ready to sever this half-life should I da...

Artist Mama Interview with Heather Annais at Soul Skin Song

I am so excited to share that today I am being interviewed by the amazing Heather over at Soul Skin Song!  She's been running this fabulous series about creative mothers, and I'm honored to be the latest featured artist.  Heather is a dear friend, fierce mama, and a talented artist, not to mention the author of Saving Katie Baker, a novel, and a delicious poetry collection, The Grey Muse.  You can check out our interview here.  Here's a taste of the conversation:

What is yo...

Realizing the Comforts of My Color {Thoughts on White Privilege}

She came from nowhere, it seemed, and slipped away in the same smooth and silent way.

We were at the donut shop's counter, being treated to coffee by one of the people we were visiting.  His wallet was out, and suddenly she was there, at his side, all creased chocolate skin and curls spiraling with gray and -- this is what has stayed with me -- dark and haunted eyes.

"Do you have a dollar?" she asked the one of our group who was paying.  "Could you get me a coffee?"

His reply was sharp...

Spread the Love [Blog Tour]

art by mary wangerin
The deliciously talented Mary of The Turquoise Paintbrush (that's one of her dreamcatchers above -- I'm in love) invited me to be part of this creativity blog tour.  So delighted to be asked!  Here's what she wanted to know . . .

What are you currently working on? 
Right now I'm hard at work editing The Light Between Us for its mid-June release date (eeeee!! don't forget to enter the giveaway for a free copy).  I'm also writing the first draft of a new (a...

Won't You Emerge, Lovely One?

This past week or so has been so mad that I forgot to share with you that Sprout Online Magazine's Emerge issue is out!   I have a poem in there, and there is just so, so, so much loveliness within.
 
For more inspiring words and amazing artwork, nab your copy of Sprout: Emerge here (aff. link).  Or join the Sprout community on Facebook.  Yum!   What does it mean to you to emerge?

Finding Our Way Home Again For the First Time

from the Secret Message Society zine
There is a prevalently held notion, I think, about spiritual wanderers, and it is this: that when she is done with her ramblings and seekings and walking-abouts, the wanderer will slip quietly back into her old allotted space.  That she will return to the same church (or temple or synagogue or circle or . . .) and slip into her usual seat, worship and listen and nod in her usual way, and when the service is over her community will pat her shoulder and...

On Not-Praying

Just over seventy-two hours ago, I held my sweet toddler boy's body as a seizure rocked us all to the core. 

I thought he was dying.  I thought I was about to watch him die, there on a friend's porch that was too far away from any hospital, our sweet afternoon playdate cut horrifyingly short.

His body stopped seizing.  We couldn't keep him awake (I did not know at the time that this is normal).  His breathing was labored. 

I thought he was dying.

I looked up from his too...

When We Rise Up From Our Bed of Tears

{download this graphic here -- right click the image & hit "save as"}
Sometimes it’s okay to walk away for a time, to leave the dark and allow the sun to slide warm and languid across your cheek. To climb a mountain, spread your arms to the cerulean sky, to howl fierce and glad and free at the filling moon.
We have been initiated in the worst of ways, and the price was the death of a baby, babies, a child, children, or perhaps of fertility and physical wholeness, and always of tenderly tend...

When We Try to Save the World, Together

I've been feeling increasingly unsettled. About our earth, our inequalities, our consumer culture, our broken political system (here in America, anyway).  It gnaws at me, this concern.  And it's not the kind of needless worry, born out of my worst fears.  No, it is the kind that is based in uncomfortable fact.  Even our rather heads-in-the-sand-ish leaders have recently acknowledged the dire state of our earth.

When it was just me, I could brush the concern away.  Sure...

What to Say to a Bereaved, Infertile, or Otherwise Childless Mother on Mother's Day {2014 Edition}

image by CarlyMarieI wrote this post in 2012, the first year I celebrated the day as a mother -- a bereaved mother.  It remains my most popular and searched-for post.  I reposted it again last year, and decided to do the same this year.  

Even though it's been two and some years since my baby girl died, and although I have reached a place of peace and beauty (for the moment, anyway), I am not looking forward to Sunday's holiday.  I'm kind of in denial about it, refusin...