Waves

 

Hulopo'e

G. Cornwall, c. December 2012

This is Not a Poem, It is a Series of Waves

I come to you with my self in my own hands 

like a clam shell.

I say, "Look, this is what I am."

and I open.

This is my language.

This is my culture.

This is my truth

in this moment.

This is my ability to speak with you

from my heart.

My fears,

my scars,

they are here too.

Touch them;

know this part of my terrain.

Read me like Braille

in your hands;

read the shapes I take.

Read my amorphous shapes.

Keep reading.

I am here.

I am changing.

I am able to be touched by you

and read again.

I am the story;

shifting like the dunes on the wind.

-Gillian Cornwall, 

c. 2008.

The Wave

Oil pastel on paper

c. Gillian Cornwall, 1988.

available for sale