20 Comments
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Kaitlyn Rightmyer's avatar

Hands, an extension of the heart. 🤍

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Caroline Mellor's avatar

Thank you for these reflections, Kerri, delivered with great beauty and sensitivity always...

I also struggle with attaching capitalistic metrics to my work - especially with poems, which often don't feel like they're ever really mine to begin with.

I'm grateful to you for exploring this so openly, and for holding space at this time. It has value beyond measure 🙏💙

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Parts I Haven't Read's avatar

yes- the open exploration is such a gift.

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Marbellys's avatar

Dear Kerri, what a beautiful piece and thank you for all you do for mothers, we need more people like you on this earth.

Reading your words reminded me of a poem I wrote in 2017. I haven’t shared it before but I feel it might resonate as it was written both from the perspective of a mother and a lover…

These hands by Marbellys (11 Sep 2017)

These hands have thrown a ball

Swam in the sea

learnt to grip

Firmly

whilst climbing trees

•••

These hands have known

The softness of silk

They have crawled

Played with dolls

Made friendships

•••

These hands have held

Their own babes

Softly, caring

Comforting

Wiping tears, mucky faces

Doing up

Those shoe laces

•••

These hands have toiled

Made beds

Grafted, cooked, plastered

Painted

•••

These hands have touched

The smiling, wrinkled faces

Of loved ones

In far away places

•••

These hands have learnt

The art of caressing

Discovering

Undressing

•••

These hands held the promise

Of having, holding

Loving, caring

Forsaking all others

Till death did its bidding

•••

These hands will hold

Your heart

Carefully

Nurture it

Without oppressing

•••

Trust these hands,

their love is unending

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Parts I Haven't Read's avatar

Lovely.

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Parts I Haven't Read's avatar

Wow - how beautiful. "The Notes section has made me feel increasingly unanchored, lost at sea."- I've felt this too! Gives me a bit of anxiety, a rushed feeling, opposite of what drew me to Substack. "Winter light, on moss falling" - gorgeous!

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Ali Isaac's avatar

How can we expect others to value us and what we do, if we don't value ourselves? Putting a price on that is incredibly hard, and often the value cannot be reflected in monetary terms, as you have pointed out. Congratulations on the Arts Council Bursary, they are not easily come by, and it is an affirmation of your talent, the quality of your art, and of the time you invest in your art, and it also has a monetary value, so many things all wrapped up in one. 💕

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Lily Belldale's avatar

Beautiful as ever xx 🌟 Bringing us back to what matters and what is “at hand”. Congratulations on 6 years.

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Allie's avatar

Thank you 🙏🏼

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Maria's avatar

Most Precious Woman - Your authenticity tangible - felt by my heart and soul. Your Humanity a much needed soulful (tenderly delivered) brilliant light on our shared finite path. A Wisdom Teaching. We, are safe with you - in and out of Circle. Thank you Kerri x

In Circle - All My Relations

Blessings, Love and Peace

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Pam Thompson's avatar

Such beautiful words, Kerri.

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Lisa Olivera's avatar

Beauty beauty beauty, all of it.

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Sophie Underwood's avatar

A beautiful piece. Thank you, Kerri. I love how organic this writing feels in both its form and expression - shifting within the strange and often wonderful substrate that is Substack, seeking nourishment and ways to nourish others, in symbiosis.

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Genevieve Beech's avatar

so lovely kerri, thank you for your generous words ❤️

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Misky's avatar

As humans, I've always thought that touch gives the soul more than any emotion. A lovely write.

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Kathryn Vercillo's avatar

Starting this, I was reminded of the scene in the movie Beaches when the friend who is dying desperately wants to find a photo of her mother's hands and the other friend helps her ... she goes on to raise the woman's daughter after her death. <3

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Katie Jackson • Modern Magic's avatar

I love these feelings and thoughts. I deeply feel your passions for women, mothers, artists. The balance for simple creation and needing to make a living is a hard one and yet, it’s the same struggle every artist through time has felt, especially women. Thank you for sharing this, it helped put words to so many of my own feelings ✨

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Amy Henne's avatar

6 years sober. Such an accomplishment. 6 years of grief and the deepest of sorrows and yet, I’m still here.

At 74, I find myself essentially homebound, not by choice but by the strange circumstance of an aging body. I long for deep connection to thoughts of other wise women at the fire. Should you have one subscription left, I would so welcome it. Thank you for your consideration.

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