These poems are published connected to a project supported by the DC Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs. Dr. Joanie Terrizi was a participant in the 2026 Jewish Poets retreat supported by the grant.

How do you not give up your wholeness

How do you
not give up
your wholeness,
in a world that
writes words
that
erase people
while also
erasing people
who
write words?

We are enrolled
in a class called
“How to Be Your Whole Self”
and the assignment is
to be whole
in a world wielding wishes
to slice against
one side
or
another.

We are
living poetry;
constraints on words
honing our stanzas
while
constraints on worlds
hone what we stand for.

Dear Friend

Dear Friend,

I write to you from
where I stand,
alone
in The Land
of Nuance,

from whence
I entertain
two friends of mine
who are enemies
but
who cannot see
each other
in the room
at the same
time.

They speak
in unison
saying
the same things
in reverse order

expecting that
I
agree fully
with
them.

While I sit here
soaking them in,
holding multiplicity
leaning toward myself –

brokenhearted
by the noise
and the
indivisible invisibility
of what is
more True:

My two friends
most need
each other.

Dr. Joanie Terrizzi is a writer, grief coach, and mind-body medicine professor who is fascinated with depth, human potential, and healing. She is a former school librarian who can still often be found with a book in her hands, and she is blessed with too many hobbies, so you can also find her gardening, baking, meditating, writing, painting, hiking, swimming, or snuggling with her puppy and/or a pair of foster puppies. She dwells in the mountains around Asheville, North Carolina, taking in the beauty and peace of the land around her, and avoiding getting eaten by a bear. You can learn more about her writing here: https://proseandcontents.wordpress.com/

Featured image, “Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina”, by Villaida, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons