Ever since I started writingpresence in 2016, I’ve been verbulously fascinated by liminal spaces, whether at the entrance to Iron Age brochs in Sutherland or Caithness, at the turn of the Wheel of the Year, or in the breathlessness and awe in steps toward relationship, whether human or numinous, animist or polymathematical, panamorous or intellectual (touching between).
Today I am minding the gap at the threshold between poetic productivity and be-Mused dawdling, conscious of a looming submission deadline in [a month and… phew!] two days’ time. The ‘Belonging’ issue of Synkroniciti Magazine awaits my tentative input. Participating and sharing in this quarterly online incubator for the arts has been a lifeline for me and many other creatives over its score of issues since the launch in 2019.
At the same time I am relishing a challenge set by Dora on behalf of dVerse Poets Pub – another literary lifeline. Very beautifully and well resourcedly, she invites us to share our riff on liminal themes.
As William Blake (1757-1827) averred: “In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.”
Entranced
Belonging in the liminal space
Between dreaming and awakening,
I swing both ways
The mask of Janus hollow
And self-aware to a fault.
Reaching out
To feel our palms on skin,
We take pause in the presence
Between now or never
And gasp at handfuls, first grasped at,
And then released as so much thistledown,
Dampened only lightly by
The Other's sweat of possession.
© Kathy Labrum McVittie 12 June 2024
writingpresence 
Your liminal space is a bit like a cocoon… sooner or later it has to be broken.
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I’m fascinated that you say that (and I do agree). Over the last few months I have been writing poetry about chrysalis transformation to butterfly… the emergent butterfly wants to dance with other butterflies.
Thanks for your insights as ever, Bjorn
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I am truly “entranced” by your poem, Kathy. The persona herself is nicely sketched, seeing herself as “belonging” to the liminal space, until letting go of the “I” in the first stanza, the “we” takes over in union with the Other, in a space of “now or never,” a need for immediacy opening the door to passion and “possession.” The progression of the poem from self to self-less with the Other is so cleverly and beautifully portrayed.
By the way, best wishes as you write for Synkroniciti. I know you’ll do them proud if this poem is anything to go by!
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Dear Dora, I appreciate you sharing your interpretation of this poem, just as much as I value your offering of the prompt, with all its multilayered imagery. You have discerned much of my experience and intention in writing this.
Yes, that sweet-spot where Self and Other meet and are held without grasping or being possessed …!
Thank you for your encouragement and for sharing the Joy ❤
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I had not thought that one may ‘belong’ in a liminal space but you’re right, it is a place of belonging. Really enjoyed your take on liminal spaces/places. 😀
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thank you Carol; sometimes I feel that it’s only in the liminal/edge-space that I really belong …
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Along the so-delicate surface of dream and waking, self and Other, this grazing infinitude fraught and haunted and so inviting of the liminal poem. Amen.
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Thank you Brendan for your tender witnessing of the dance of relationship
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