SHADOW'S REPRIEVE/"Kintsugi Sings: Beautiful Pain"

 A deep dive into healing, transformation, and finding melody in our broken pieces

Image: Created by Marilyn Glover with Canva Design

This morning, I released episode 6 of my Substack poetry podcast, reading from my debut Jungian-themed poetry chapbook, Shadow's Reprieve.

Today's poem, Kintsugi Sings: Beautiful Pain, marks the start of part two, in which I explore the Shadow archetype. My poem is written in Chant Royal format, a French poem consisting of 60 lines: five 11-line stanzas followed by a 5-line envoi.

Inspired by the philosophy behind the Japanese art of repairing pottery (Kintsugi), which speaks to displaying an object's cracks or line breaks as an important part of its history and worthy of highlighting, I adapted the concept to pain.

Pain escapes none of us, yet so often we try to suppress it, push it down, and not honor its presence. It's a natural part of our lives and vital to our development, but so many times we try to hide it, and for what? Is it not okay to cry? Is it not okay to be open and honest about our painful experiences, feelings, and all related emotions?

Of course it is.

Society often speaks of strength as a pulled-together appearance: emotional intelligence, integrity, resilience.

But aren't these attributes often born of less-than-ideal occurrences— like pain?

We mustn't let pain be forbidden & hidden. We must let it live on the surface, much like any happier expression or moment.

If Kintsugi says that broken objects hold history and that repairing them with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, & platinum not only mends the pottery or mug, but it also highlights the previous fractures as beautiful art, then why not let Kintsugi sing this soulful song for the people?

Let all our fractures be highlighted like gold for the world to see, as they are part of us and all of our unique beauty.

Kintsugi Sings excerpt

Here is the second stanza from my poem:

Kintsugi flair asks you to weigh

Repair your pain and make it art

Think hand-fashioned, a pot of clay

Rework the torment; play your part

Solemn’s suffrage; shall not be sold

A new view awaits, yes, behold

Question’s query, quick in the queue

Fix it, a fact that lies in lieu

Now is the time for pulling strings

To try something you never knew

“Beautiful pain,” Kintsugi sings

If you'd like to read along while I narrate, check out episode 6 here on my Substack

It's FREE, and every episode airs on Wednesday.

As I close out every recording, take care of your inner world.