Let Me Tell You

Let Me Tell You
| a poem by Erin Hanson

Let me tell the tale
Of a girl who didn’t stop,
Who climbed up every mountain
Without a pause upon the top.
She’d dance until each blade of grass
Was clothed in drops of dew,
And the sun knew her by name
But the silver moon did too.
For a fear had settled in her bones;
A fear of sitting still,
That if you’re not moving forward
It must mean you never will.
So in time her dance got slower
And she looked at all she’d seen,
But found gaps inside the places
That she’d never fully been,
For she was a human doing
Human moving, human seeing,
But she’d never taken time
To simply be a human being.

Poems have accompanied me all my life. At the beginning of my path, it was the beauty of words that moved me to express myself. Later it was the music. Today, perhaps, photography. All tools that we can use to express what is within us.

As with music, with art, with pictures, so it is for me with poems. There are always a few that stick, that stay in my memory longer than others. The ones that accompany me and that I like to come back to.

This poem by Erin Hanson is one of them. Erin was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1995 and is known for her poetry. They are written of simple language, yet they have a lasting effect on me. At the age of 11 she already started her blog and today enjoys great popularity on Instagram.

Sources:

– Erin Hanson: thepoeticunderground, lulu.com, 2014.
– Erin Hanson: Voyage – The Poetic Underground #2, lulu.com, 2014.
– Erin Hanson: Dreamscapes – The Poetic Underground #3, lulu.com, 2016.
– Erin Hanson poetry on Instagram @thepoeticunderground