The Wild Wide Open

by Cristina M. R. Norcross

 
The welcoming of the wide open
is
a releasing of breath,
an expansion of lungs,
the lengthening of limbs.
The mind unfolds itself from 
an accordion of layered thoughts—
the brain’s mille-feuille.
 
The heart once enclosed by a sturdy ribcage
suddenly sees the world for its
multiplying dandelion self.
Wild mushrooms appear,
curtains open,
we feel the depth of everything—
the quiet longing,
the nostalgia that comes with grief,
the spark of joy’s cartwheels
and the ache of pain,
like a tooth with a cavity.
 
Like Anais Nin’s tight bud
that risks blooming,
seek the space between,
the mystery of the unknown place
without sound, 
the wide-open field you walk past every day.
Step through the fence—emerge.
 
Your hands now catch laughter,
releasing orange and black wings.
You allow bare feet to feel 
the pain of loss in exchange for
the tender remembrance
of how your father used to sneeze
with boisterous abandon.
 
Grow tall, like the unruly grass 
at the edge of the pond.
Risk falling in,
ruining your shoes, getting wet.
Risk feeling, risk living 
in the wild, wide open spaces,
where the boysenberries flourish,
where the soft earth touches your feet,
where the deepest things grow.


* * * * *

Cristina M. R. Norcross is editor of Blue Heron Review, author of 9 poetry collections, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and an Eric Hoffer Book Award nominee.  Her most recent collection is The Sound of a Collective Pulse (Kelsay Books, 2021). Cristina’s work appears in: Visual Verse, Your Daily Poem, Verse-Virtual, The Ekphrastic Review, Pirene’s Fountain, and others, as well as numerous anthologies. Cristina has helped organize community poetry projects, has hosted many readings and is co-founder of Random Acts of Poetry & Art Day. Cristina lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two sons. www.cristinanorcross.com