Fierce
(or, how to do hard things)
Stoneware paperclay
2024

Available to purchase click here

Not everyone can do the things you can do

(you think they can, but they can’t)
She said these words to me
or something very similar

(at least that’s what I heard)

What my friend was saying was:

You believe that everyone has the ability to fly
To pull themselves up by their boot straps
and have success

if they put their mind to it.

If they work hard (or smart)
even through tough times
or when they get lost
or lose their nerve.

You believe (she said)
that everyone has the ability to find their dream
and make it come true.

But, she said, not everyone can.

At first I was surprised by what she said
Not because she wasn’t right

But because it had never even occurred to me.

It’s only now, after some months,
that I have seen evidence
of what the says.

I see it in people who approach
and ask me questions

about my life and my art

I share what worked for me,

what I have learned.

And I hear things like:
I can’t do that
or I’ve tried that, it doesn’t work

or I don’t want to do that,
that’s not me.

I hear doubt and words that all mean no.

And I realize my friend might be right.

Maybe there are people
who will never learn to fly

Maybe, for them, the ground

is just a much safer place

to be.

(but maybe,
she’s wrong)