Unbecoming

The image of the butterfly, the pupa, and the chrysalis has long spoken to me. But in truth, the butterfly is what I really wanted to be. I longed to be in the butterfly stage of development, for it's where I felt safe, 'enough,' and good. The other, earlier stages - the caterpillar, pupa and chrysalis - were either something to rush through or something 'less than' the almighty butterfly.

There is something so tender and vulnerable about being in process, about being imperfect and continually unfolding. The drive for better or more - even for something as sublime as growth - can leave us exhausted, continually trying to improve, without any psychological or spiritual rest, homeless from ourselves.

The irony is that this rest is what enables any true growth or transformation to unfold.

I remember the day when I was startled open by the idea that all parts of the cycle are equally worthy, with their own beauty and becoming.

My garden continues to teach me this. While it may be a natural prejudice to value the butterfly over the goo of the chrysalis, or the riotous growth of summer over the dark silence of winter, when I look deeper, they all belong and are content within their season. One isn't higher over the other. They're all held within Nature, within the cycles of life.

There I find contentment, some release from striving.

Unbecoming by Karly Randolph Pitman

“Go softly.” - Joanna

You wanted to be the butterfly –
the fruit of the womb, the shining
star of the cycle. But the cocoon
is where the mercy comes, where
the caterpillar can let go of every thing
it thought it should be. You touch each
calcified chrysalis you've carried,
the hardened exoskeletons
of your former selves, narrow bones
that never fit. You invite each self
into the dark, let each pupa dissolve
into her liquid goo, the gold that says
I am always becoming.

Poetry Reading with One Art

Friends, I’m over the moon to spend time with fellow writers Ellen Rowland and Phyllis Cole-Dai and our host, editor and founder of One Art, Mark Danowsky, for a poetry reading on Sunday, May 3rd.

If you feel moved to come, I’d love to have you join me! The reading is from 1-2:30 pm Central time.

It’s free, but you need to register here. There will be time for reading as well as questions. 

Here’s a bit more about Ellen and Phyllis, my co-poets:

Phyllis Cole-Dai resides in Maryland. She’s the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including the popular Poetry of Presence volumes of mindfulness poems. She invites you to hop aboard The Raft, her online community.

Ellen Rowland is a writer and editor who leads small, generative poetry workshops on craft and form. She is the author of two collections of haiku: Light, Come Gather Me and Blue Seasons, and most recently The Echo of Silence/L’écho du Silence, a bi-lingual book of haiku and tanka. Her full-length poetry collection, No Small Thing, was published by Fernwood Press in 2023. You can find her writing in ONE ART, Sheila-Na-Gig, Braided Way, Humana Obscura, and several anthologies, including “The Path to Kindness” and “The Wonder of Small Things” edited by James Crews. Her chapbook of after poems, In Search of Lost Birds is forthcoming from Kelsay Books. She lives off the grid with her family on a small farm in Greece. Connect with her on Instagram , Facebook and Substack.

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With a grateful heart, Karly