A few poems by Becky Hemsley, a teacher turned poet in the UK, have shown up in my Facebook feed the past week, and really resonated with me, and clearly with many others.
When people say that someone carries baggage, it is always seems to be articulated as a negative trait.
“She has baggage”
But baggage is a storyline, a timeline of the hurts we have experienced, the harms we have overcome. And they also define who we trust, who we don’t. Our baggage contains the transcripts of how and why our walls were constructed and over what timeline.
Below are the words, and the feelings of so many women, in ‘Baggage’….. I’m plunking in here because I don’t want to lose it.
Baggage
She opens up her suitcase
And it’s loaded to the brim
She simply doesn’t have the room
To squeeze more baggage in
Her hold-all’s filled with years and years
Of things she has endured
But you think she has no hold-all
‘Cause she acts so self-assured
But just because she’s confident
And acts like she’s alright
It doesn’t mean her baggage
Is inconsequentially light
For though her life looks rosy
It doesn’t mean to say
That she doesn’t carry burdens
That weigh her down each day
She’s fought off many monsters
Often swam up from the depths
She’s walked through many fires
And pulled herself back from the edge
So never think she walks on air
When she’s actually walked through hell
You just don’t know her load is heavy
Because she carries it so well
~ ‘Baggage’ from Talking to the Wild by Becky Hemsley