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lyrics

A Letter to My Adolescent Self

“listen I love you joy is coming”
—Kim Addonizio

Listen, I know life right now
feels like heartache
is your mother tongue,
parents who live in the shadows,
you stumbling down
the dark corridors of youth
trying all the locked doors
and knobs breaking off in your hands.

I won’t promise this heartache ends.
You’ll lose people you love: death, betrayal,
a slow fade. Some will dissolve
like salt on the tongue. There will be moments
you’re sure you are drowning, arms flailing,

but sometimes your frantic waving
will summon a joy you never knew could exist
arriving like an elephant emerging
from a still forest or a hatching egg placed
in your palm, and you will know delight
is not an afterthought, nor a luxury,
but an amaryllis opening the first petal,
its red tongue whispering secrets
of all the loves it has ever known.

*By Christine Valters Paintner from the collection "Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty" published by Paraclete Press.

credits

from Sound and Stillness II: An audio collection of poems by Christine Valters Paintner, released December 14, 2022
By Christine Valters Paintner from the collection "Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty" published by Paraclete Press.

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Abbey of the Arts Galway, Ireland

Abbey of the Arts, in partnership with The Dancing Word, produces albums to inspire soulful connection to ancient monks and mystics, to Celtic practice and tradition, to the sacred feminine, and to Earth and her creatures.

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