Does a poem ever wake you up in the morning, in that liminal space between sleep and awake? I had to get up an hour before I usually do to make sure I captured it.
My mother-in-law whom I wrote about yesterday refuses to write her memoir. She’s written five books now, three mystery novels based on stories from her days as a District Judge, and two historical fiction books. She asked me “What should I write next?” I emphatically said “Your memoir.” Yesterday she looked at me and turned the proverbial key on her lips meaning her lips are sealed. There are some things I already know. She grew up in New Jersey, went to Wellesley then to Yale Law School where she met my father-in-law and moved to Louisiana with him, a shocking move for her parents to grasp.
Mary Lee is writing cherita poems this month. “Cherita is the Malay word for story or tale. A cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse…The cherita tells a story.”
Storytelling is about healing the heart and mind.
It enables us to remember and not forget those who went before us, and also of those who loved or hurt us with their words and deeds. The recording, both oral and written, and sharing of stories is age-old. When we start to write, we bring to life the lost words of yesterday – from just a few moments ago to the time of our ancestors huddled around a roaring fire in some smoky cave of all our beginnings.
Be the storyteller and healer you are meant to be. Make us laugh, cry and be entranced by six lines of your words.
Storytelling is oxygen for the soul.
From thecherita.com
The Progressive Poem is with Tabatha today. Follow along here.
Reflections on the Teche 
If SHE won’t write the memoir…(tee hee hee!)
That last line packs a punch, thanks to your commentary about how her family perceived her move to Louisiana.
I’m fascinated by the cherita – and by your mother-in-law’s story. She should write the memoir.
“She wasn’t afraid of storms”–what a powerful final line! I’m ready to read that memoir too. Thanks, too, for the explanation of the cherita. Adding it to my list of forms to try!