I am the One Who…

This poem, I am the One Who…, was written after completing an exercise looking at all the No’s in my life, and then answering the question, “What if there were no No’s?”

That’s not to say that anyone actually TOLD me not to play pretend or giggle or be silly, but somehow I, like many of us, took on those rules and lived by them. But what if there were no NO’s?

I am the One Who…
~ Alice Finnamore, 2024

I am the One who
plays pretend, who giggles, and is joyfully known
as the silly one, the fun one,
who talks to stars out loud, hugs trees
and hears the trees respond,
who refuses hand-me-downs
and wears, instead, gowns from the dress up box,
like an every day princess.

I am the One who
kisses and loves and makes love,
and marries for love, not for legal sex,
who puts up her hand in class,
and who insists on being heard
asking questions and shaping answers
into her own Wild Truth.

I am the One who is smart, creative, intuitive, and opinionated,
who speaks up and fights back,
who feels her feelings,
feels her love, her desire, her anger,
who speaks these things loudly if need be,
and stomps her feet for emphasis.

I am the One who wonders aloud about other ways
to know the Wild Holy,
who learns and experiments and shares,
whose magical mystical experiences
become stories and fairy tales.

I am the One who shares her knowings
and doesn’t care if people think she is smart or weird.
She IS!
I am the one who studies physics and reads boys’ books,
who speaks with authority,
and tells the truth about who and what she loves.
I am the one who loves her Self,
who promises her Self never to say no to her desires,
and never to diminish her talents.
I am the one who sparkles, who glistens,
whose light lights the way
for the world.