"Poems, Prayers, & Promises" #19

Featuring Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Cremaine “ThatCelloGuy” Booker

Aug 25, 2023

Welcome to another day of “Poems, Prayers, & Promises”

Remember, you’re the co-creator of this dive. Do as much or as little as you’d like, when you’d like, how you’d like, with the materials I provide. Just keep gentle faith with yourself.

Registered yet for “Rafter Refuge”?

September 5, 6:30-8:00PM Central (7:30 ET, 5:30 MT, 4:30 PT)

As we approach the close of “Poems, Prayers, & Promises,” please register for our final sharing time on Zoom. We’ll reflect together on our experience of this Deep Dive. Please bring something brief to contribute to the free-flowing gathering, such as . . .

“shimmering words” from a poem that especially resonated with you
an insight that broke into your awareness
an excerpt from something you wrote
a promise you made to yourself that you want to speak aloud . . .

☀️ Registration is required for this celebration.

Set your intention

Take a moment to name the primary intention you have for this month-long deep dive and/or this particular session. Take a quiet moment to center yourself in that intention.

Enter the music

Read the poem

I invite you to read this poem twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to my reading of the poem (below), perhaps with your eyes closed.

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A PRAYER FOR IMAGINATION
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

The effort of the imagination is to turn the boundary into a horizon because there is no end point for you. The boundary says, Here and no further. The horizon says, Welcome.
            —Barry Lopez, Horizons (short film by Jeremy Seifert)


There are so many boundaries in me,
so many limitations, prisons,
places where a line has been drawn—
perhaps by another, perhaps by me.
The lines say, Stop.
The lines say, Don’t be curious.
They say, Make yourself small. Now smaller.
But imagination is the big pink eraser
that rubs out the lines,
smears and disappears them.
Sometimes, it’s more like a tear—
a small rip in the known
that bids me look through the lines
as if peeking through a curtain.
And sometimes the imagination
takes a line and bends it, twists it
like a clown with a balloon,
until what I thought was a boundary
becomes bird, becomes crown, becomes
flower. Or it turns the line perpendicular
so what I thought was a deadline
becomes path. I want to listen
for the voices beyond the boundaries,
want to open to what I can’t yet see.
I want to hear the welcome of the horizon
and, like a bell calling me home, let it lead me.   


(found at this link)

Contemplate/Create

Use any of these questions however you wish—e.g., as openings for meditation or prayer, as prompts for journaling or poetry-writing, as sparks for drawing or painting, as catalysts for change-making . . . You may also ignore my questions altogether to go off in other directions!

What line(s) that make you “small” would you like your imagination to erase, or change the limiting nature of?
What horizon(s) would you like your imagination to help you explore?
If you were to speak to your imagination, or pray to it, what would you say? What would you ask of it? What would you offer it?
Does your consideration of this poem move you to make any kind of promise to yourself or someone else?

Want to visit with other Rafters in the Deep Dive?

Here are two options: either leave a comment on this post using the button, or join the chat thread dedicated to this Deep Dive. (Note: if you haven’t created a Substack profile yet, you’ll be asked to do so before you can comment or chat.)

Join us on September 5 for “Rafter Refuge”!

6:30-8:00PM Central (7:30 ET, 5:30 MT, 4:30 PT)

Let’s close this Deep Dive with a time of sharing. Come and reflect with other Rafters on “Poems, Prayers, & Promises.” Registration is required for this celebration.