‘umi’s prayer’ is about love in all its forms. it is a love letter to the land and to its people. it is a love letter to self, to those who are pondering ‘queerosities’, to those who wake to the building of their dreams. it is both the journey and destination to how whole-hearted authentic living cultivates community and champions creativity.

Read a sampling from umi’s prayer

  • showing her how

    what's a mama to do when she watches a part of her soul that lives
    outside of her body,
    hurt
    struggle
    fumble
    what's a mama to do when all she wants is to
    rescue
    save
    fix

    mama's,
    observe//
    as you have since our first breath
    listen//
    as you have done since our first cry
    hold//
    as you have since our eyes first locked

    mama's,
    we must hurt to know joy
    we must struggle to know how to endure
    we must fumble to be confident taking up space

    mama's,
    we will rescue ourselves
    we will save ourselves
    we will uncover we're not broken.

    mama,
    you've been showing me how all along.

  • the entire ocean in one drop

    i’m not a very good swimmer
    yet
    swimming your seas comes with a type of ease
    i can dive right into–

    sea of complexity, that proves to me humanity
    is worth fighting for.
    tidal waves of myself in another lifetime
    dreaming about these very experiences, imagining these very
    conversations.
    drowning in the disbelief that a colonial chokehold almost
    extinguished this existence

    from the water i can hear the trumpets in the night
    joyous notes, crashing waves
    a sound my brain tells me i am hearing for the first time, yet my body
    already knows the rhythm–
    a rhythm my soul remembered when i met you.

    you are a
    salt water bath;
    a ritual
    a ceremony
    the entire ocean in one drop.

    baptize me with your waters
    show me the ways love heals all
    bring me back to my natural vibration
    hold my hand through the uprising

    we are the ones we have been waiting for

    -for ocean

  • lullabies of long goodbyes

    i want to know what you taste like
    already acquainted with tobacco breath and preferences of what
    nourishes you

    i want to know what you taste like
    feasting on your mind, salivating on your soul

    as my heart sings lullabies of long goodbyes, i double down on
    desire--
    library of lifetimes to get lost in

    i don't know these stories--
    and still, the spine of these books are interchangeable with the spine
    in my back--
    keeping me bound together, keeping me whole.

    -even though you are the book, we still need to write our own story

  • inches and miles

    have you ever stopped to realize that to some ones inch you have given a mile?
    instead of travelling the distance together, the mile is being used to keep their space
    space disguised as sitting on a back burner just hot enough to stay on
    space that is disguised as the inability to give thyself permission that
    you wanted more-- that you deserve more
    miles to practice navigating the highway to highest self
    miles to rest your head at the hotel of hope to dream new dreams, to
    learn to lay enveloped in love
    you're going to get lost
    you are going to call your brain in for directions, but you cannot get directions to a place ain't nobody ever been before, baby.
    listen to your heart
    the map of your heart will always know the way, will always show the way
    less direction, more introspection.
    i move in miles
    some folks move in inches
    there is no right way to travel, but... i suggest going together.

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