Beyond Conversation by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is an amazing poet whose piece, Beyond Conversation, expresses with precision the safety to express authentically I hope people feel when they join my Writing Circles. There is a deep reverence in this poem that drew me in on this grey Sunday August morning when, as I type, my ears are slowly attuning to the unexpected sound of raindrops gently pattering on my patio roof.

You can also hear a gorgeous reading of this poem by Michael Justice here.

Beyond Conversation by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

There was a time I believed we need to tell each other who we are so you can know me, so I can know you. Now, I see how words, too, can be like little masks, little disguises we can use to hide. I don’t want to hide anymore. I want to find the most naked words— words with no ribbons, no sparkle, no paint—and speak in the barest of tongues. I want to speak with you blood to blood, breath to breath, grief to grief, fear to fear. I want to know you and be known by whatever it is that resonates inside the words— a raw and vibrant IS, IS, IS that pulses between us like a common heartbeat— the way two living heart cells from two different people, when placed together in a petri dish, will find a shared rhythm and sustain it. This is how I want to meet you— two silences becoming one silence, two dancers becoming one dance.