July

An anonymous guest poem about a post-divorce awakening

After divorce, there are so many things women are not supposed to discuss openly. Everything from legal challenges to custody to nightmarish interactions with co-parents to financial struggles. Relationships after divorce can also be a vulnerable topic to explore. Today, we are sharing a poem from a fantastic midlife author who chooses to publish anonymously. As we are preparing for a new fall workshop, Writing Divorce, this submission arrived at the perfect time. If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please fill out this interest form to stay in the loop—no commitment! Or you can get more information and sign up here.

We plan to make this workshop a safe, supportive women where midlife women can share openly, give voice to the experiences they have not been able to express, read excerpts from other divorced writers, and create something meaningful in community.

Photo by nine koepfer on Unsplash

Here is an Author’s Note about today’s guest poem, July:

Post-divorce sex and sexuality is rarely talked about. When I was explaining some of the feelings contained in this poem recently to a much older woman while we were washing dishes over a sink together, she turned to me and said, "Let me tell you something—at a certain point after divorce, you will emerge again out of all that darkness and realize you are still alive. And in that transition, all the anger and resentment will turn into libido." She paused and waved a scrubber gracefully in the air and said gently, "And when that happens, you get out there and take what you need."

The day the heat broke,
mine did too.
So I walked the hills behind my house
and lay down where the grass was flattened
overlooking the valley
The insistent throb between my legs 
quieter, but still there,
awakened, after such a long hibernation.

Who am I now
having stepped across the continental divide?

The old river, the river of the first half of my life,
still flowing to the Atlantic
but no longer mine
The flooding current of a new one, carrying me 
out of divorce’s desert, and forward—
towards the Pacific

Around me in the grass the deer lift 
their white tails
turning out for the breeze, unafraid

Later, on the way back down the mountain
I picked so many blackberries
I had to carry them home 
in two open cupped palms
Ripe to bursting,
staining my hands with 
the bright purple of their July

I held them out, all the way down
like an offering to my own sweet self
here at the midpoint.

We are pleased to announce a new four-week workshop, starting September 3: Writing Divorce, led by

Steph Sprenger

.

Writing Divorce is a four-week writing workshop for midlife women who are processing a divorce, whether in the middle of one or healing from a divorce that happened long ago. With the wisdom, perspective and honesty of other midlife writers who have navigated divorce, we will explore readings, respond to writing prompts, and express the myriad feelings and experiences in a safe, supportive community. 

Learn more HERE.