Today’s Featured Poet: Deidre Braley
Deidre Braley is a poet, essayist, and editor. Her debut poetry chapbook, "The Shape I Take," was published by Bottlecap Press in December 2023. Her poetry has been featured in the literary journal The Way Back to Ourselves, and her poem "Do Not Preach" was the winner of their 2023 Storytellers Contest. She has also been published in The Truly Co., Vessels of Light Journal, Prosetrics, and Maine Women's Magazine, among others. Her weekly Substack and corresponding podcast, The Second Cup, offers theology and poetry for real-life people. Deidre lives in Maine with her husband, three children, and one grumpy Chinese Crested Powderpuff.
Lessons from a Tree
You can’t blow a tree down
with your breath
he said, from the back
of the car
as the world beyond the window
blurred into blues and greens and grays.
And we began to talk
about the way
trees have roots
like fingers
that dig and stretch into the dark
secret called
Earth until they
come across
another
whose fingers are exploring
terra incognita, too.
And when their knuckles twist—
married there, in the hidden
underworld—
they become stronger still,
impervious to the gusts
aboveground
so that the wind from a billion
breaths
is just a breeze in their branches.
In the contemplative
pause
of a four-year-old’s brain
I reach back
and work my fingers
into his small, sweaty fist.
Interview with Deidre Braley
What inspired you to write the poem?
One night, a terrible windstorm ravaged our town. On our drive the next morning, my then four-year-old son and I exclaimed over all the damage. Branches were strewn all over the road. Telephone lines were down. Lawns were littered with children's toys, broken fences, even a trampoline in the odd place here and there. There were plenty of damaged trees, too, but for the most part, they remained standing while so much else had succumbed to the storm. As my son astutely noted from his carseat, "You can't blow a tree down with your breath." In other words—a tree is very strong. It is hard to bring down. We kept talking and remarking on the landscape, but inwardly, my mind began a new dialogue about the metaphor at play here.
What does this poem mean to you?
All the time, I am gaining a deeper understanding about what kind of strength is available to us through community. In the most difficult seasons of my life, I have been utterly carried along by friends and family who have fed me, prayed for me, guided me, encouraged me. As someone who used to pride myself for being super self-sufficient, I am now intimately aware of the fact that we are designed to carry one another—and sometimes to be carried. There is beauty in this system, even when it's a complicated one. As a mother, I want my children to know that they too are interconnected with others, and to embrace it. I want them to understand that there is unique strength to be found in relationship with others, and that it's worth the long, slow growth it takes to build it.
How does your faith impact your poetry?
I believe that everything boils down to the state of our souls—that all of our lives we are learning to be both holy and human. My poetry usually reflects that in some form or fashion, because I guess that's what you'd call my "Roman Empire."
Why is it important for people to read poetry? What can they take away from it?
As I like to say, "poetry is for rebels." It is for the people who see things a little differently, or at least who want to. It is for the ones who suspect that there is more to life than what they can see at face value. It is for those underwhelmed by other genres and their black-and-white ways for talking about the things that really matter. Poetry has the ability to capture essence, and feeling, and instinct, and verve. It is not just flowery, rhyming phrases that are archaic and difficult to understand (at least not the good stuff). It is something that meets you directly in your humanity and transports you somewhere holy—that is, set apart from standard convention.
Your poetry Deidre is rooted in such belovedness and and rich soil loaded with seeds of hope that spring up with each word!
Poetry "is something that meets you directly in your humanity and transports you somewhere holy," was so vividly portrayed in your poem, Lesson from a Tree.
I so enjoyed reading it and loved the poetic turn at the end when you weave your fingers into your four-year-old's small, sweaty fist.
Thank you, Deidre!