"Meditation on Skin"

A couple weeks ago I was wandering through San Francisco and stopped by City Lights Bookstore. I love their poetry room. I always find something fun - from beat poetry to this 2024 collection: “The Beautiful Immunity” by Karen An-Hwei Lee.

Today, I wanted to share one of the poems that I’ve been sitting with the last few days. It is titled “Mediation on Skin.”

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedBreathes with you and everything in the room. Takes a pumice stone to the heels of your feet. Covers the soul, largest organ of the body. Mends the world without complaint, a letter.Lives sweet without strife in one's family. Arises from gene expression and a pulse. Shields a book, an envelope, this life. Seals a wide barrier of continuous resiliencemolting and shedding, versatile at night. Hydrated moon is the sea's motion. Flaring consciousness foams over a wall, encloses this phenomenal world at a touch. Consciousness foams over a wall. Hydrated moon is the sea's motion, flaring,molting and shedding, versatile at night. Seals a wide barrier of continuous resilience.Shields a book, an envelope, this life. Arises from gene expression and a pulse.Lives sweet without strife in one's family. Mends the world without complaint, a letter. Covers the soul, largest organ of the body. Takes a pumice stone to the heels of your feet.Breathes with you and everything in the room.