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Working with Deborah Koff Chapin’s Soulcards
FULL-GROWN BIRD
Image Swimming is a term I invented for a series of literary meditations inspired by visual work — in this case, the work of Deborah Koff Chapin, creator of Soulcards. I’m using the cards from Deck 2. Please visit https://touchdrawing.com/ for more on this transformative process.
A full grown bird
is making her way up
through me and into everything.
She started as the squiggle
in my bellybutton, drawn by
a drunk fairy with a pen that only writes
on Tuesdays and only for a couple minutes.
She gelled up, her tiny bones got real,
her body made white and light
and then there were feathers
and then she was a
Bird.
I didn’t listen to her for a long time.
She squawked, I felt her flutter.
Felt disturbances in my chest.
The nausea, the pain.
I didn’t know it was
just me
