As the back cover of her new volume of poetry, Hieroglypics of The Heart, explains, Dr. Susan Marc Lawley is a leadership and life coach, award-winning entrepreneur, and inspiring writing instructor. What a brief biography cannot capture about her, her own words in the following poems reveal. She is an archeologist of the deepest, most hidden regions of the heart–the places where loss has been preserved and where revelation is brought to light. Hers is a voice that speaks to what women know and carry within themselves and what the world would be better for understanding.
Under Construction
I am under construction.
Watch me take shape.
Peer into the window of my soul.
See what renovation looks like at mid-life.
I am the draftsman of my own design.
I produce the blueprint, feel free to revise it.
I reconsider my façade
and change the face I offer the world.
I am the architect selecting
fixtures for my future,
choosing power sources to sustain,
collecting water to nourish.
I am the decorator of my domain,
determining the color scheme.
I am the designer who discovers
the artifacts worth displaying.
I am the shaman
who checks the feng shui,
who directs the energy
in an uninterrupted flow.
Like the carpenter in the final stage of her craft,
I must take up the cloth and polish my possibilities.
Retrievals
What am I looking for?
The counsel of a mother lost when I was 30,
toddler in tow, life in simpler times,
little money, few possessions,
my younger self, unwrinkled, unafraid.
What am I searching for?
The counsel of the universe,
the lessons of the stars,
the challenge of living simply
in a complicated world,
how to find my truest self.
What am I waiting for?
the right moment,
the perfect time,
the opportune place,
the alignment of the stars.
What have I discovered?
My mother sits before me
in the image of that toddler,
now 30. My face with its wrinkles
is the unpretentious version.
Living simply is much more
complicated than it seems.
There is no right moment,
no perfect time, and the stars only align
when there is harmony in my heart.
Join the conversation
I just read the poems “Under construction” and “Retrivals” I was touched by the words, as I am living them. Change is an amazing thing expecially when there is no warning. It was beautifully written. It takes you on a jouney that many women are on and have not the voice to speak it. It has been spoken boldly and percisely. I enjoyed it and it made me want to write my own as I too am a poetic. Thanks for stirring up the gift once more.
Hieroglyphics of the heart by Dr Sue Marc Lawley is a treasure trove of poetic truths that inspire discovery, growth, understanding, learning, laughter and gratitude. The poems at times are so vivid that I am able to see the people, smell the food, hear the traffic on the streets of Greenwich Village, share in the laughter and also the tears and most of all to celerate life. It has evoked in me a genuine sense of place in myself and deepened my appreciation of my family in all its constelations from ancestors to my immediate family.This is a must read particulalry for women who are reaching to experience a more authentic sense of self. Kudos to Lawley on this collection of poems, thank you for finding and sharing your voice.
I am under construction right now. There are so many options and so many things I want to accomplish. Sometimes it’s scary and I’m not sure which direction to take but I’m not standing still. Any direction is better than getting stuck in one place.
Thank you for your beautiful words.