Throughout June, more friends have been offering their poems for the next Anthology from dVerse Poets, provisionally titled ‘Krisis: Poetry at the crossroads’. You can find the submission detaiis here.

It’s Open Link Night at dVerse Poets and it’s my turn to race the deadline, offering ‘the crossing’ . It emerged the morning after a Soul Retrieval journey offered by a young shamanic practitioner.


the crossing


~ to accept ourself

back into our own arms,

held closer to this soul than it could ever be

before they cut my breast away

and sewed the earthworm scar across my heart;


~ to allow myself into the ancient grove

where I lie down upon the woodland floor --

old Oak clearing littered with lichen, moss and fern --

where I root in, mycorrhizal, unto the family of all things unified;


~ to accept my weal as being gift, both Prospero and portent, kindly soft of sight;

sanity and health by small degrees, the lees in the cup bitter, the medicine proportionate -

to swim through awe, a slow doggy paddle towards integrity;


~ to shore up, safe upon the shingle, tingling

with voice again, and now with dignity and grace;


~ to be your face.



© Kathy Labrum McVittie 19 June 2025