The Patient Daughter
We all carry many pieces of our identity with us every day. This piece examines a core part of myself and the role that I have been given in this life.
To be a patient daughter is to listen with intention, To say less and to hear more. To take a deep breath… Inhale when the fear of time gets too overwhelming Exhale. Patient daughters feel anxious about unknown futures, An anxiety that rises and cannot be tamed by reassuring phrases. To be a patient daughter is to love flavorful food, To feel your stomach growl and hear it reverberate around the room, To take the time to breathe in the rich smell of garlic and onion mixed together. Patient daughters relish in the taste of the flavors of every piece of food they eat, letting the unique taste melt on their tongue. See the patient daughter, as she dances with her mother, Loud music blaring through the apartment. Hear the drum her father plays, whose steady beat guides her feet, Whose patient rhythm shapes her life. Watch the patient daughter as a young child Her face molded in concentration As she reads with eager eyes And anxiously skips to the end of her book, Unable to leave anything to mystery. See the patient daughter as she looks with patient eyes At the world around her, But has no patience for herself, No grace for herself, No place for herself, No space for herself.
To say less and to hear more
Attentive to sound quality Stressed and unstressed things Write two sentences and stanzas of imagery that are totally different from each other and write a poem that aims to connect the two; linear progression and emotional progression Patience and anxiety; anxiety is like intrusive thoughts, you can find ways to incorporate the intrusive thoughts in the poem; as if the lines were like thoughts Glitter in the blood
Process
This piece was written at a time in my life when I was feeling extremely unsure about my future. I felt anxiety about time and how fast it was moving and the choices I had to make. This poem allowed me to examine parts of myself and allowed me to reflect on what it is like to grow up.
In writing this piece, I used space as a tool, purposefully spacing the sentences and words so that certain words would have more of an effect. I initially began writing this piece because of a prompt in one of my classes, where we had to take two aspects of our identity (patient and daughter) and combine them into one poem. As I started writing, I began to learn that these words brought up a lot of emotion for me and this poem became an outlet for me to release my feelings.
Liliana Colon
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Liliana Colon
Liliana Colon is a sophomore college student currently living in Brooklyn, NYC. She made the decision to take a gap semester to further explore her interests. Her passion for writing and desire to create during this break led her to discover the Girls Write Now community. Liliana is a visual artist, musician and committed writer, and hopes to pursue these dreams. Liliana enjoys taking walks throughout the city and draws inspiration for her music and art through observing the world around her, particularly in nature.
